Objective: Assess how child involvement in making rules about screen time relates to age, child prosocial functioning, and amount of screen use.
Methods: NORC's AmeriSpeak Panel was used to recruit a nationally representative sample of parents or guardians of school-aged children (age 5-17) in the United States (n = 2084). Parents completed survey that included measures of screen time, child involvement in rule making about screen use, family functioning, and dimensions of child psychosocial functioning.
Results: Across all age categories, most families had some form of rules about the allowable amount of screen-based digital media for uses other than schoolwork: 86% of elementary school-aged children (ages 5 to 10), 81% of middle school-aged children (ages 11-13), and 61% of high school aged children (ages 14-17). Across all age groups, having rules was associated with fewer hours of screen time (elementary school: B = -1.31, 95% CI = -1.80 to -0.81, p < 0.001; middle school: B = -1.40, 95% CI = -2.20 to -0.59, p < 0.001; high school: B = -0.97, 95% CI = -1.68 to -0.27, p = 0.007). Child involvement in making rules was significantly greater for high school students as compared to elementary school students (ß=0.12, p < 0.001), and not associated with high school- or middle-school aged child screen time. Across all age groups, child involvement in making rules was associated with higher levels of prosocial functioning (elementary school: ß=0.07, p < 0.001; middle school: ß=0.19, p = 0.001; high school: ß=0.21, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Child involvement in making rules about screen use may be an opportunity to strengthen developmentally important competencies, as part of a broader autonomy-supportive approach to parenting.
Keywords: Adolescent health; Autonomy; Digital media; Family decision making; Psychosocial health.
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