Screen Time and Attention Subdomains in Children Aged 6 to 10 Years

Magnus Liebherr; Mark Kohler; Julia Brailovskaia; Matthias Brand; Stephanie Antons

doi:10.3390/children9091393

Screen Time and Attention Subdomains in Children Aged 6 to 10 Years

Children (Basel). 2022 Sep 15;9(9):1393. doi: 10.3390/children9091393.

Authors

Magnus Liebherr^{1

2}, Mark Kohler³, Julia Brailovskaia⁴, Matthias Brand^{1

2}, Stephanie Antons^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Psychology: Cognition & Center for Behavioral Addiction Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Magnus Liebherr, Forsthausweg 2, 47057 Duisburg, Germany.
² Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 45141 Essen, Germany.
³ School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.

Abstract

Using digital media has become the most popular leisure activity for children and adolescents. The effects of digital media use on the developing brain and cognitive processes of children are subject to debate. Here, we examine the effect of digital media use on attention subdomains in children aged 6 to 10 years. In total, 77 children participated in the study. Selective and divided attention as well as switching between attentional subdomains were quantified by the SwAD-task. Parents were asked to assess the screen time of their children (smartphone, laptop/PC, game console, tablet, TV). Results show no main or interaction effects of screen time on any of the attention conditions investigated. Based on the present findings as well as previous studies, we suggest a possible non-linear relationship between the amount of screen time and attention function. Furthermore, we emphasize the relevance of considering the socio-economic background of children and a need for longitudinal studies.

Keywords: attention; children; cognition; development; digital media.

Grants and funding

We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Duisburg-Essen. The work of M.L., S.A., and M.B. on this article was carried out in the context of the Research Unit ACSID, FOR2974, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)–411232260.