American parents’ active engagement mediates the impact of background television on toddlers’ play

ABSTRACT

This secondary analysis examined the extent to which parent engagement mediates the impact of adult-directed background television (BTV) on toddlers’ toy play. Fifty-one children (12, 24, 36 mos) played in a furnished observation lab for 30 min without BTV and 30 min with BTV (order counterbalanced across participants). Parents were instructed to act as they normally would during leisure time. The findings revealed an indirect negative effect of BTV on the proportion of time that 12- and 24-month-old children played with toys, which was completely mediated by parents’ active engagement in their child’s play. These effects were not observed for 36-month-olds who had more (rather than less) play in the presence of BTV. Moreover, parents’ overall disengagement (regardless of engagement quality) did not mediate the effect of BTV on toddlers’ play. That is, the quality of parent engagement mattered more than the overall quantity of engagement for the youngest children. These findings provide further evidence for the importance of considering social context and individual characteristics when examining the impact of screen media on play.

KEYWORDS:

• Background television
• toy play
• parent engagement
• parent-child interaction
• toddlers

Acknowledgments

Preliminary findings were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development (2013) and the annual meeting of the International Communication Association (2017). This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0111811, BCS-0519197); however, findings and opinions in this manuscript do not reflect endorsement by the National Science Foundation. We thank our research assistants for help with video coding and the families who participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [BCS-0111811,BCS-0519197]; however, findings and opinions in this manuscript do not reflect endorsement by the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Heather Kirkorian

Heather Kirkorian is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds the Laura M. Secord Chair in Early Childhood Development. She studies the impact of digital media on attention, learning, and play in infants and young children using behavioral, observational, and psychophysiological methods.

Koeun Choi

Koeun Choi is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She bridges cognitive development and media technology to explain and support learning in early childhood. Her research examines cognitive processes and learning mechanisms using experiments, individual difference measures, eye-tracking, and computational approaches.

Daniel R. Anderson

Daniel R. Anderson is Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research for most of his career concerned children and television. His current research focuses on brain networks deployed during receptive versus interactive screen media use.