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. 2022 Oct:57:101150.
doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101150. Epub 2022 Sep 1.

Youth screen use in the ABCD® study

K S Bagot  1 , R L Tomko  2 , A T Marshall  3 , J Hermann  4 , K Cummins  5 , A Ksinan  6 , M Kakalis  7 , F Breslin  8 , K M Lisdahl  9 , M Mason  10 , J N Redhead  2 , L M Squeglia  2 , W K Thompson  11 , T Wade  12 , S F Tapert  12 , B F Fuemmeler  13 , F C Baker  14
Affiliations

Youth screen use in the ABCD® study

K S Bagot et al. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Adolescent screen usage is ubiquitous and influences development and behavior. Longitudinal screen usage data coupled with psychometrically valid constructs of problematic behaviors can provide insights into these relationships. We describe methods by which the screen usage questionnaire was developed in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, demonstrate longitudinal changes in screen usage via child report and describe data harmonization baseline-year 2. We further include psychometric analyses of adapted social media and video game addiction scales completed by youth. Nearly 12,000 children ages 9-10 years at baseline and their parents were included in the analyses. The social media addiction questionnaire (SMAQ) showed similar factor structure and item loadings across sex and race/ethnicities, but that item intercepts varied across both sex and race/ethnicity. The videogame addiction questionnaire (VGAQ) demonstrated the same configural, metric and scalar invariance across racial and ethnic groups, however differed across sex. Video gaming and online social activity increased over ages 9/10-11/12 (p's < 0.001). Compared with boys, girls engaged in greater social media use (p < .001) and demonstrated higher ratings on the SMAQ (p < .001). Compared with girls, boys played more video games (p < .001) and demonstrated higher ratings on the VGAQ (p < .001). Time spent playing video games increased more steeply for boys than girls from age 9/10-11/12 years (p < .001). Black youth demonstrated significantly higher SMAQ and VGAQ scores compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. These data show the importance of considering different screen modalities beyond total screen use and point towards clear demographic differences in use patterns. With these comprehensive data, ABCD is poised to address critical questions about screen usage changes across adolescence.

Keywords: ABCD; Children; Screen usage; Self-report.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Nicholas Allen and Ryann Crowley hold equity interests in Ksana Health Inc., a company that has the sole commercial license for certain versions of the Effortless Assessment Research System (EARS) mobile phone application and some related EARS tools.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Proportion of time spent on screen watching across three annual assessments during weekdays and weekends, plotted separately for boys and girls in the ABCD Study®.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Proportion of time spent on video gaming across three annual assessments during weekdays and weekends, plotted separately for boys and girls in the ABCD Study®.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Proportion of time spent engaged in online social activity across three annual assessments during weekdays and weekends, plotted separately for boys and girls in the ABCD Study®.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
One Factor Analysis for the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire (Appendix I).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
One Factor Analysis for the Videogame Addiction Questionnaire (Appendix I).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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