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Category: Project

Description: Digital media has become an integral part of our daily lives. Today, not only adults, but also many children around the world use digital media, sometimes for multiple hours per day. However, we do not yet know 1) how long Swiss children use digital media, 2) what, when and why they use screens, and 3) what potential consequences of early screen use might be. Thus, the goal of this study is to assess Swiss children’s use of digital media during the first five years of their lives. This is a nation-wide project conducted as a cross-sectional online survey that consists of a “Core-Assessment” (sociodemographics and screen time of the oldest child in the age group 6 to 60 months in the family) as well as different Spin-off Modules that have been supplied by several participating institutions across Switzerland. The Spin-off Modules assess: children’s use of digital media (DM) and their vocabulary, patterns of childrens’ DM and non-DM activities, parental technoference and children’s socio-emotional development, children’s use of DM and their emotional and behavioral problems, parental media addiction, parental media mediation, children’s use of DM and their physical health, fandom, and screen use in daycare. The online survey is conducted in four languages (English, German, French, Italian) as a planned-missing design, with 5000 parents completing the core questionnaire plus one random spin-off questionnaire. The project generates a large dataset on child digital media use during early childhood in Switzerland. Further, the project enhances knowledge about the associations of child and parent screen use with parent and child characteristics and health outcomes.