About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 24. Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

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Children today are immersed in a media-rich environment. While frequent, prolonged media use may negatively impact language and cognitive development (Zimmerman et al., 2007; Operto et al., 2020; Dynia et al., 2021), high-quality media experiences—such as educational, child-directed content with family involvement—may support language growth (Linebarger & Walker, 2005; Hudon et al., 2013). Few studies have explored media exposure among dual language learners (DLLs), which may span two languages. This study aims to: 1) Describe Spanish-English DLLs’ media experiences at home, 2) Examine cross-language associations of the frequencies of media activities—children’s media exposure may be either consistent (i.e., positive correlation) or divergent across (i.e., negative or no correlation) the two languages, and 3) Examine within- and cross-language associations between the frequencies of media activities and traditional learning activities (e.g., book-reading). If the frequencies of media and traditional learning activities are negatively correlated, it would suggest that children’s media use compensates for a lack of traditional learning. Alternatively, a positive correlation might suggest that media and traditional learning activities complement one another.

Participants were 434 parents of Spanish-English DLLs aged 0-7 years. Parents self-reported 1) demographic information (see Table 1), 2) the frequencies of six media activities in Spanish and English (1-never or rarely, 4-every day; see Table 2), and 3) the frequencies of seven traditional learning activities in Spanish and English (1-never, 5-every day). Average scores of frequencies were calculated for media and traditional learning activity in both languages.

Descriptive statistics highlighted the prevalence and variability of media exposure among DLLs (see Table 2). In both English and Spanish, children engaged in listening to songs and/or watching TV/videos most frequently, followed by using learning apps and playing games on digital devices (Friedman’s test, English: Chi-square(5)=726.10; Spanish: Chi-square(5)=572.17; p’s<.05). Listening to audio materials and/or reading e-books were the least frequent activities (p’s<.05). Additionally, children engaged in all media activities more frequently in English than in Spanish (Wilcoxon signed-rank test Z’s = 2.90-9.80, p’s<.01).

Controlling for child age, firstborn status, parents’ education level and English and Spanish proficiencies, the average frequency of English media activities was positively correlated with that of Spanish media activities (r(427)=.57, p<.001). Additionally, children who more frequently engaged in media activities also participated more often in traditional learning activities in the same language (English: r(427)=.49, p<.001; Spanish: r(427)=.56, p<.001). Finally, more frequent media activities in one language was related to more frequent traditional learning activities in the other (English media & Spanish traditional learning: r(427)=.26, p<.001; Spanish media & English traditional learning: r(427)=.39, p<.001).

Our findings underscored the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of DLLs’ media experiences. The patterns of children’s engagement in different media activities were consistent across English and Spanish. The positive relationships observed between media exposure and traditional learning activities, both within and across languages, suggested that media activities complement rather than displace traditional learning, calling for future research on the implications of bilingual media exposure for dual language development.

Author information

Author	Role
Danhong Wang, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University	Presenting author
Rufan Luo, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University	Non-presenting author
Lulu Song, Early Childhood Education/Art Education, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York	Non-presenting author

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