Screen media are associated with fine motor skill development in preschool children

TY - JOUR

T1 - Screen media are associated with fine motor skill development in preschool children

AU - Martzog, Philipp

AU - Suggate, Sebastian Paul

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by a grant from the Software AG Stiftung awarded to the first author (Grant number: ER-P 11657 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors

PY - 2022/7/1

Y1 - 2022/7/1

N2 - Media form an integral part of children's environments and represent, amongst other domains, altered sensorimotor experiences. Fine motor skills (FMS) represent a fundamental prerequisite for learning and cognition and initial work has begun to show links with screen media usage – although work is scarce and the directionality is uncertain. Therefore, using a cross-lagged-panel design with 2 waves 1 year apart, we examined longitudinal links between media usage and FMS in 141 preschool children. Results show a negative cross-lagged path from media usage to FMS, which was also statistically significant when only newer media were examined, after controlling for parental educational attainment, immigrant status, device ownership, age of first use, working memory, and vocabulary. The study contributes to our understanding of links between media usage and FMS development.

AB - Media form an integral part of children's environments and represent, amongst other domains, altered sensorimotor experiences. Fine motor skills (FMS) represent a fundamental prerequisite for learning and cognition and initial work has begun to show links with screen media usage – although work is scarce and the directionality is uncertain. Therefore, using a cross-lagged-panel design with 2 waves 1 year apart, we examined longitudinal links between media usage and FMS in 141 preschool children. Results show a negative cross-lagged path from media usage to FMS, which was also statistically significant when only newer media were examined, after controlling for parental educational attainment, immigrant status, device ownership, age of first use, working memory, and vocabulary. The study contributes to our understanding of links between media usage and FMS development.

KW - Fine motor skills

KW - Manual skill

KW - Media usage, Preschool, Digital media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129499483&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.03.010

DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2022.03.010

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85129499483

SN - 0885-2006

VL - 60

SP - 363

EP - 373

JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly

JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly

ER -