Beyond Screen Time: Developing an objective mobile media measurement tool

PROJECT ABSTRACT Excessive digital media use has been linked with several adverse health outcomes in childrenincluding obesitydisrupted sleepexternalizing behaviorand executive functioning deficitsbut measurement tools have not kept pace with the advancements in digital technology now used in most American householdsFor examplemost American families with young children now own a smartphoneor tabletand mobile device based activities comprise a growing proportion of the time children spend with screen media on a given dayMost studies examining child and parent media use rely on parent report questionnaires or time use diariesbut preliminary evidence suggests that these methodologies may be inaccurate or biased when measuring mobile device useThis poses a measurement challenge for researcherswhich in turn has created an evidence gap and calls for higher quality research on children and mediaTo address this gap in knowledgethis STTR phase I grant application aims to further develop an existing mobile sensing appChroniclethrough an ongoing collaboration between OpenLatticea data integration firm specializing in social researchand the CAFE Consortiuma multi institutioncross disciplinary group of early childhood media researchersof which DrRadesky is a memberThis application aims to develop Chronicle with the following Specific AimsAutomation of data reduction and analysiswith creation of a study team dashboard from which investigators can visualize and export their participantsmobile device usage data without the need for complicated data processing stepsAddition of ecological momentary assessmentEMAfeatureswhich will allow investigators to study the cascades of emotionscognitionsor behaviors that contribute to or stem from media use in familiesdaily livesAddition of user awareness featuresso that data from shared mobile devices can be annotated and analyzed by usere gparentchildor co viewedWe will test whether these features can be feasibly implemented by cross disciplinary research groups in order to create a flexiblescalable measurement toolThrough unobtrusive data collection of mobile media usecoupled with intermittent sampling of the user and contextwe have the potential to fill substantial measurement gaps in the growing field of digital media and child healthAn updated Chronicle measurement tool will allow more widespread use of high quality media and daily measures by child health and development researchers and social scientistsNo other such data collection tools are availableyet are needed due to the changing nature of media exposure as well as recent calls for greater understanding of children s daily media usehealthand development PROJECT NARRATIVE As mobile media comprises an increasing proportion of child media consumptionnovel measurement tools are needed to accurately assess the timingcontentand context of mobile device useThis proposal aims to develop an existing Android applicationChroniclewith automated data reduction and analysisecological momentary assessment featuresand user awareness featureswith a flexible researcher dashboard that can be feasibly implemented by cross disciplinary research groupsBy creating an unobtrusive mobile media data collection toolcoupled with intermittent sampling of the user and contextwe have the potential to fill substantial measurement gaps in the growing field of digital media and child health