JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

In the interest of accurately assessing the effects of digital technology use in early childhood, researchers and experts have emphasized the need to conceptualize and measure children’s digital technology use beyond screen time. Researchers have argued that many patterns of early digital technology use could be problematic, resulting in the emerging need to list and examine these measures.

Objective:

Our intention was to review existing empirical literature employing measures of problematic digital technology use in preschool children with the end goal of identifying a set of reliable and valid measures predicting negative outcomes for children’s health, development or well-being.

Methods:

A scoping review across three databases was conducted to identify peer-reviewed publications, published since 2012, written in the English language, describing an empirical study, including a measure of problematic digital technology use beyond exposure (i.e., screen time) in the population of children, 0 to 6 years-old.

Results:

The search yielded 93 empirical studies, in which 16 composite measures of problematic use, and 23 measures of specific problematic use aspects were found. Existing composite measures conceptualize problematic use as either a group of risky behaviors or as a group of symptoms of a presumed underlying disorder, with the latter being more common. Looking at their conceptual background and psychometric properties, existing composite measures fall short of reliably assessing all crucial aspects of problematic digital technology use in early childhood. Therefore, the benefits and shortcomings of specific problematic digital technology use measures are evaluated and discussed.

Conclusions:

Based on current research, early exposure to digital technologies, device use before sleep, and solitary device use represent measures which have been consistently associated with negative outcomes for children. Additionally, potential measures of problematic use include device use during meals, device use for emotion regulation, device multitasking, and technoference, warranting further research. Due to the lack of experimental and longitudinal studies regarding the effect on undesirable outcomes, more high-quality research needs to be published before offering firm recommendations for a finite set of problematic digital technology use measures to be used for screening or diagnostic purposes in infants, toddlers and preschool children.