The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background

Abstract

Digital media defines modern childhood, but its cognitive effects are unclear and hotly debated. We estimated the impact of different types of screen time (watching, socializing, or gaming) on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background. We analyzed 9855 children from the ABCD dataset with measures of intelligence at baseline (ages 9-10) and after two years. At baseline, time watching and socializing were negatively correlated with intelligence, while gaming had no correlation. After two years, gaming positively impacted intelligence, but socializing had no effect. This is consistent with cognitive benefits documented in experimental studies on video gaming. Unexpectedly, watching videos also benefited intelligence, contrary to prior research on the effect of watching TV. Broadly, our results are in line with research on the malleability of cognitive abilities from environmental factors, such as cognitive training and the Flynn effect.

Long-Term Impact of Digital Media on Brain Development in Children

“…There we found a negative association between SES, genetics to the usage of digital media. 4 A hotly discussed question is whether exposure to digital media among children benefits or harms the brain. 15,20 We did not find any evidence of harmful effects of digital media use.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that boys and children born preterm tend to spent more time on digital media. 4,19 Consistent with the previous findings, we found that boys spent more time playing video games compared to girls (boys = 1.25 [1.15]; girls = 0.63 [0.84]; P unadj <.001), this was also the case for children born preterm (preterm = 1.02 [1.09]; full-term = 0.94 [1.05]; P unadj =.02). We also did a separate regression analysis (Model 1 and 2) for subgroups and found a negative association between playing video games and global cortical surface area in boys (β = -0.04 [-0.07 -0.005]; P=.02) and in children born at term (β = -0.03 [-0.05 -0.007]; P unadj =.01) but not girls (β = -0.02 [-0.06 -0.007]; In an additional attempt to correct for the smaller brain at baseline, we built a model (Models 4 and 5), accounting for the baseline brain measure as an additional covariate to the pre-existing covariates for the longitudinal analyses (as described in the methods).…”

“…Behavioural studies have found benefits as well as adverse consequences associated with the amount of time spent on digital media activities amongst school-aged children. [2][3][4][5] For example, longer exposure to digital media use was associated with poor mental health, lower academic performance, and worse behavioural problems in children aged 9-10 years. 5 Cross-sectional neuroimaging studies have associated digital media use mainly with smaller grey matter volumes in various cortical regions.…”

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

“…However, their developmental vulnerability makes it necessary to critically consider the effects of screen time, especially in this age group. In available literature, effects have been heatedly discussed in different areas, such as mental and physical health (Lissak, 2018), social skills (Hinkley et al, 2018), as well as cognitive functions (Sauce et al, 2022). Findings show consistent evidence about negative effects mainly depending on both the duration and content of media use (Chassiakos et al, 2016;Walsh et al, 2020).…”

“…In earlier research, effects of using digital media on cognitive abilities have been discussed controversial (Kostyrka-Allchorne et al, 2017; Paulus et al, 2019;Sauce et al, 2021;Walsh et al, 2020). This topic is further complicated because cognitive abilities comprise a variety of mental processes such as attention, perception, inhibition, and decision making.…”