Characteristics and correlates of digital media use at 18 months: results from a representative Hungarian survey
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31074/gyntf.2024.2.306.333Keywords:
digital media use, screen time, socio-economic and demographic differences, early childhood, Cohort ‘18Abstract
To reduce adverse developmental consequences, international guidelines recommend the avoidance of digital media use under the age of two. This is, however, rarely implemented. The aim of our study is to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of early childhood media use and the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of daily screen time in a sociodemographically representative Hungarian sample. We also test the displacement hypothesis that higher media use correlates with less stimulating activities with parents. The study was conducted on the weighted sub-dataset of the third wave of the Cohort ‘18 Hungarian Birth Cohort Study (n=2569) among children (52% boys, 48% girls) aged eighteen months (M=17.99 months, SD=0.84). The data are based on maternal reports. The vast majority of children were found to be users of digital media, most often of television, with 43.6% of them watching it daily. The average daily screen time of children who used media devices was 99.6 minutes, with 37.5% of children using media devices for more than an hour. Daily screen time correlated highly with the socioeconomic status and age of the mother. In multivariate analyses, children with more than half an hour of screen time per day were less likely than children with less screen time to have been told stories or played with indoors or outdoors by their parents. The findings highlight the prevalence of media use in early childhood and the importance of a harm reduction approach to support families in developing media use habits that minimise developmental risk.
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