Berna A. Uzundağ 1, Merve Nur Altundal 2, Dilara Keşşafoğlu 3 1 Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Özyeğin University, Istanbul, Turkey 3 Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
Self-regulation, the ability to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behavior to control goal-directed activities shows a rapid development in the years comprising infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool ages. Early regulation-related skills like effortful control and executive functions predict later academic achievement and socioemotional adjustment. Studies suggest that children’s self-regulation is related to their use of screen media. In this systematic review, we aimed to summarize and integrate the studies investigating the relationship between young children’s screen media use and their self-regulation. We searched the ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases with the ((“self-regulation” OR “executive function*” OR “effortful control”) AND (“media exposure” OR “mobile device” OR smartphone OR tablet OR technology OR TV OR “digital media” OR computer OR “screen media” OR “screen time”) AND (infant* OR child*)) keywords and identified 39 relevant articles. While screen time in infancy was negatively associated with self-regulation, findings were more inconsistent for later ages suggesting that screen time does not adequately capture the extent of children’s screen media use. The findings further indicated that background TV is negatively related to children’s self-regulatory skills whereas watching fantastical content seems to have immediate negative effects on children’s executive functions. We suggest that future studies should take the content and context of children’s screen media use into account and also focus on parent- and home-related factors such as parental behaviors that foster the development of self-regulatory skills.
