ReviewFrontiers in psychology2022
Effects of screen exposure on young children's cognitive development: A review.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Screen Use, Child Development and Family Involvement in Children Aged 2-7 Years: A Systematic Review.Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Pooled it
- The Impact of Modifiable Parenting Factors on the Screen Use of Children Five Years or Younger: A Systematic Review.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Physical activity, sleep, dietary habits, and screen time in Bogotá's children post-pandemic lockdown: a mixed-methods study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- Associations Between Early Screen Exposure and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Children Aged 2-5 Years: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Children's Interest in Digital and Traditional Literacy Activities: A Mixed-Methods Study of Parents and Children.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Screen Exposure and Childhood Adiposity in Socially Vulnerable Settings: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- The Roles of Delayed Cortical Maturation and Lower Anticipatory Reward Activation in Predicting Addictive Screen Use in Youth.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2026Article
- Screen exposure in early childhood and maternal behaviors: a cross-sectional study from Turkey.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Digital toxicity in early childhood: A mixed-methods study on the nexus of problematic technology use and behavioral health risks.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Executive Functioning as a Mediator Between Digital Media Exposure and Communication Outcomes in Children and Adolescents.Journal of Intelligence · 2026Article
- Environmental and family correlates of daily TV-watching time in children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Associations Between Screen Time, Sleep, and Executive Function in School-Aged Children and Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Digital Content and Age.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Dysregulated Screen Exposure Is Associated With Severity of Language and Communication Impairments in Children With Developmental Disorders.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Article
- Digital Health in Early Childhood: A Cross-Sectional Study of Pediatricians' Knowledge, Practices, and Training Needs in Northern Italy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Early Digital Engagement Among Younger Children and the Transformation of Parenting in the Digital Age From an mHealth Perspective: Scoping Review.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2025Review
- Debate around and impact of digital screen time and media parenting on children's development.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2025Article
- Family Dynamics and Digital Distractions: A Survey-Based Study on How Co-Parenting and Parental Phubbing Shape Preschoolers' Media Use.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Maternal adverse childhood experiences were associated with early screen exposure and prolonged daily screen time in preschool children.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Examining measurement discrepancies in adolescent screen media activity with insights from the ABCD study.Npj mental health research · 2025Article
- Correlation of screen exposure to stress, learning, cognitive and language performance in children.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the use of screen media in families, and infants are exposed to screens at younger ages than ever before. The objective of this review is twofold: (1) to understand the correlates and demographic factors determining exposure to screens, including interactive screens, when available, and (2) to study the effects of watching screens and using touchscreens on cognitive development, during the first 3 years of life. We argue that the effects of screen viewing depend mostly on contextual aspects of the viewing rather than on the quantity of viewing. That context includes the behavior of adult caregivers during viewing, the watched content in relation to the child's age, the interactivity of the screen and whether the screen is in the background or not. Depending on the context, screen viewing can have positive, neutral or negative effects on infants' cognition.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.