Family socioeconomic status and children's screen time

Abstract

Objective: This mixed-methods study examined whether higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children's digital technology use adhered to contemporaneous pediatric guidelines, how it compared to lower-SES children, and why, as analyses showed, higher-SES children's technology use far exceeded pediatric recommendations. Background: 2013 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines recommended limited “screen time” for children. Higher SES families tend to follow guidelines, but digital technology use—simultaneously a health behavior and a pathway for building human capital—has complex implications. Method: Quantitative analyses provide new nationally representative estimates of the relationship between social class and 9- to 13-year-old children's technology time (including television), device access, and parenting rules (2014 PSID Child Development Supplement, N = 427). Qualitative analyses of 77 longitudinal higher-SES parent interviews articulated explanatory processes. Results: Higher-SES children used technology as frequently as others and in excess of recommendations. Their device access, activities, and agency in adhering to rules, however, differed from others. Qualitative analysis uncovered processes that helped explain these findings: parents' ambivalence about technology and perception that expert guidance is absent or unrealistic, and children's exercise of agency to use technology facilitated by “concerted cultivation” parenting styles, led to higher-SES individualistic parenting practices that supported children's increased non-television technology use. Conclusion: Cultures and structures related to children's technology use are in flux, and classed norms and understandings are emerging to construct relevant class-based distinctions around parenting.