Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use

Jason M Nagata; Angel Paul; Felicia Yen; Zacariah Smith-Russack; Iris Yuefan Shao; Abubakr A A Al-Shoaibi; Kyle T Ganson; Alexander Testa; Orsolya Kiss; Jinbo He; Fiona C Baker

doi:10.1038/s41390-024-03243-y

Associations between media parenting practices and early adolescent screen use

Pediatr Res. 2024 Jun 5:10.1038/s41390-024-03243-y. doi: 10.1038/s41390-024-03243-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. jason.nagata@ucsf.edu.
² Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
⁵ Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁶ School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
⁷ School of Physiology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

PMID: 38834780
PMCID: PMC11626836 (available on 2025-12-05)
DOI: 10.1038/s41390-024-03243-y

Abstract

Background: To assess the prevalence of various media parenting practices and identify their associations with early adolescent screen time and problematic social media, video game, and mobile phone use.

Methods: Cross-sectional data from Year 3 of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (2019-2022) that included 10,048 adolescents (12-13 years, 48.3% female, 45.6% racial/ethnic minorities) in the US were analyzed using multiple linear regression analyses adjusting for potential confounders.

Results: Parent screen use, family mealtime screen use, and bedroom screen use were associated with greater adolescent screen time and problematic social media, video game, and mobile phone use. Parental use of screens to control behavior (e.g., as a reward or punishment) was associated with higher screen time and greater problematic video game use. Parental monitoring of screens was associated with lower screen time and less problematic social media and mobile phone use. Parental limit setting of screens was associated with lower screen time and less problematic social media, video game, and mobile phone use.

Discussion: Parent screen use, mealtime screen use, and bedroom screen use were associated with higher adolescent problematic screen use and could be limited in a family media use plan. Parental monitoring and limiting of screen time are associated with less problematic screen use.

Impact statement: Although the American Academy of Pediatrics provides guidance for screen use for children 5-18 years, there is a paucity of evidence-based guidance for media parenting practices, specifically for early adolescents. In a diverse sample of 10,048 early adolescents across the US, we found cross-sectional associations between parent, mealtime, and bedroom screen use and higher adolescent problematic screen use. Parental monitoring and limiting of adolescent screen time were cross-sectionally associated with less problematic screen use in our analytic sample and may be incorporated into a family media use plan.

Abstract

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