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Identifying children at risk of later being frequent online-technologies users
Kristie Auman-Bauer
January 22, 2021
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Children are not only starting to use online electronic devices and online technologies at a younger age, but they are also using them in more situations at home and at school. However, frequent use of online technologies may harm children’s development by displacing other activities that are developmentally beneficial. Penn State researchers are trying to identify which young children are growing up to be frequent users of online technologies.
According to lead researcher Paul Morgan, a professor of education and director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research, current guidelines recommend that school-aged children limit their electronic device use. Yet their use is rapidly increasing, especially during the pandemic.
Understanding which children are more vulnerable to frequent online technology use is important yet has been understudied in the past, said Paul L. Morgan, director of Penn State s Center for Educational Disparities Research. Many studies are reporting negative associations between frequent use of online technologies and older children s development, suggesting such use may be displacing important activities such as parent-child interactions, book reading, physical activity and regular sleep.
Morgan and his team have found that children s behaviors in kindergarten appear tied to their online habits in fifth grade. Children who act out in kindergarten are more likely to be heavy users of online technologies by the end of fifth grade, their study found.