Peer-reviewed article
Prospective Associations Between Media Parenting Practices and Early Adolescent Screen Use: Findings From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.
Jason M Nagata, Derek Sportsman, Kristen E Kim, Oliver H Huang, Christiane K Helmer et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how parents' media practices affect early adolescents' screen time and problematic use. The research followed nearly 8,000 children around age 13 for one year, measuring parental approaches to screens and children's resulting screen habits. The findings show that parental monitoring and limits on screen time reduce adolescent screen use, while using screens as rewards or punishments, and parents' own heavy screen use, increase problematic screen habits in children.
Key points
- Parental monitoring and limiting screen time were associated with lower adolescent screen and smartphone time
- Using screens to control behaviour and allowing screens in bedrooms were associated with greater screen and smartphone time
- Parental screen time modelling and family mealtime screen use were associated with greater adolescent screen time
- Parental screen time modelling and using screens to control behaviour were associated with problematic social media use
- Family mealtime screen use, bedroom screen use, and using screens to control behaviour were associated with problematic mobile phone use
Limitations
The study is observational and cannot determine causation; parental screen practices may be influenced by adolescent characteristics rather than vice versa. The smartphone subsample was smaller (N=840) and may not represent the full cohort.
Abstract
AIM: To assess prospective associations between media parenting practices and screen time and problematic screen use in early adolescents. METHODS: We used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a prospective cohort of 7947 adolescents [Mage 12.9 years]. Media parenting practices from Year 3 (2019-2021) and adolescent-reported screen time, app-reported smartphone time (subsample N = 840), and problematic screen use from Year 4 were analyzed using linear regression models adjusted for potential confounders. RESULTS: Use of screens to control behaviour (e.g., as a reward or punishment) and adolescent bedroom screen use were associated with greater screen and smartphone time. Parental screen time modelling and family mealtime screen use were associated with greater screen time. Parental monitoring and limiting of screen time were associated with lower adolescent screen time. Parental monitoring was also associated with lower smartphone time. Parental screen time modelling and use of screens to control behaviour were associated with problematic social media use, while family mealtime screen use, adolescent bedroom screen use, and use of screens to control behaviour were associated with problematic mobile phone use. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that counselling families on specific media parenting practices may help reduce adolescent screen exposure and problematic screen use.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Various media parenting practices including parental monitoring, setting limits on screen time, modelling healthy screen use, managing screens at mealtimes and in bedrooms, and use of screens for behaviour management
- Population
- 7,947 early adolescents with mean age 12.9 years from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study; subsample of 840 with smartphone app-reported data
Key finding
Parental monitoring and limiting screen time associated with lower adolescent screen time
Nagata et al. · PubMed (US National Library of Medicine) · 10 Jun 2026