The effect of screen viewing on children's cognitive development is of concern to parents and researchers alike. This study examined the association between children's screen time, as reported by parents, and their drawing abilities, while controlling for confounding effects related to socioeconomic characteristics (such as parental education, household income, migratory status) and children's concurrent activities (such as drawing practice, extracurricular activities, time spent outdoors, sleep time, time spent playing with parents).
Participants were 7577 children aged 3.5 (50% girls) who took the Draw-a-Person test (McCarthy score [0-12 point scale]) in the French national Elfe cohort, launched in 2011. Sex-stratified Poisson regression models with zero inflation were used. Increased screen time was associated with a higher probability of a zero score in boys (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.07-1.23) and girls (1.13 [1.03-1.24]), and a lower score in girls only (β = -0.02, 95% CI -0.04; -0.01). After adjustment for socio-economic characteristics, the associations were no longer observed, indicating that the association between screen time and drawing ability was biased by socio-economic characteristics.
Surprisingly, the study of language activity has long been conducted outside of any...More