Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Screen Time: Results From a Large, Nationally Representative US Study

doi:10.1016/j.acap.2015.08.007

Academic Pediatrics

Volume 16, Issue 2, March 2016, Pages 122-128

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.08.007 Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To test the hypotheses that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have higher screen time than other children on a US nationally representative sample and that children with ASD are overrepresented among children who exceed the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) screen time recommendation (2 hours or less a day).

Methods

The National Survey of Children's Health 2011–2012, a nationally representative survey, asked parents to report their child's (aged 6–17 years) average daily media usage. The ASD subpopulation (n = 1393) was compared to children without ASD (non-ASD, n = 64,163). Differences were compared by design-corrected F tests. Regression models were estimated for both groups separately. Adjusted Wald tests were used to rigorously test the hypotheses.

Results

More than half of US children exceed the AAP screen time recommendation. Compared to non-ASD, children with ASD had similar amounts of total screen time (3.21 hours per day vs 3.46 hours per day; P > .05), media (TV/video) time, and computer/mobile device leisure time. Children with ASD have a milder age gradient than the general population on computer/mobile device usage. Children with ASD were proportionally represented among high users (more than 2 hours per day). Data did not support hypotheses.

Conclusions

In a large, nationally representative US sample, there was no evidence that children with ASD differ in their screen time habits from other children. Both groups have high screen time use. Caution should be exercised before assuming that children with ASD are at higher risk of exceeding AAP screen time recommendations. Efforts to promote adherence to the recommendation are needed, but they should neither target nor exclude children with ASD.

Section snippets

Sample

The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) 2011–2012 is a random-digit, cross-sectional US nationally representative survey that interviewed 95,677 parents or guardians about a randomly selected child in their household. It was conducted between February 2011 and June 2012. It used the National Immunization Survey sampling frame and included cell phone–only households as well as traditional phone land lines. It reports a 23% response rate—lower than previous NSCH surveys because of the

Prevalence and Division Into Groups

There were 1393 children with ASD in the data set, for an estimated ASD prevalence of 2% for children aged 6 to 17 years, consistent with previous reports.¹⁶ There were 64,163 children without ASD in the study.

Table 1 compares both groups on the demographic variables known to be social determinants of screen time. Children with ASD were disproportionately male (82.80% vs 50.50%, P < .001) and underrepresented in households at or below the FPL (13.42% vs 20.07%, P < .01). With respect to all

Discussion

In this nationally representative, large study, no evidence was found to support the following 2 hypotheses: first, children with ASD will spend more time in screen-based leisure activities than other children in the general US population; and second, children with ASD will be overrepresented among children who exceed the AAP recommendation of a maximum of 2 hours per day total screen time.

I estimated that children with ASD aged 6 to 17 spend 1.81 hours per day for TV/video, 1.40 hours per day

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: The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Children with Special Health Care NeedsChildren With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Screen Time: Results From a Large, Nationally Representative US Study

Abstract

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Sample

Prevalence and Division Into Groups

Discussion

J Appl Dev Psychol

J Appl Dev Psychol

Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Television, video game and social media use among children with ASD and typically developing siblings

J Autism Dev Disord

Researches in brief: the management of television and video by parents of children with autism

Autism

From tarantulas to toilet brushes

Remedial Spec Educ

Barriers to physical activity in children with autism spectrum disorders: relationship to physical activity and screen time

J Phys Activity Health

Media use and sleep among boys with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or typical development

Pediatrics

Demographic predictors of media use among infants, toddlers and preschoolers

Am Behav Sci

Children with Special Health Care Needs
Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Screen Time: Results From a Large, Nationally Representative US Study