Screen use among young children and parental concern

Introduction. An excessive technology use among young children is a cause for concern in pediatric practice. Objective. To assess screen use among children < 4 years old and its relation to parental concern about psychomotor development regarding motor, language, cognitive, and personal -social skills. Population and methods. Survey administered to mothers and /or fathers of children aged >= 18 months and < 4 years seen at the outpatient office between February and May 2018. Descriptive, cross-sectional study. Results. A total of 150 surveys were completed. Combined device use in 100 %: TV, 98 %; smartphones, 80 %; tablets 52.7 %; computers, 24 %. Average use: 2.25 h /day across all ages (standard deviation:1.2). Use and quality: games, 60 % (non-educational, 23 %); videos, 88 % (non-educational, 20 %). Parental concern about development: 82 % had no concerns; 8.7 % was concerned about language; 9.3 %, about attention deficit; the latter two were consistent with a longer exposure time: 2.92 It /day (p= 0.0024). Parental opinion about use and effects on development: 52 %, beneficial; 12 %, no effect; 25.3 %, harmful; and 10.7%, harmful due to excessive use; the latter two were consistent with a shorter exposure time: 1.8 It / day (p= 0.0023). Conclusions. The 100 % of children use devices in combination. Parental concern about psychomotor development is expressed when exposure exceeds the current recommendations for age.