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.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 27, 2015
Accepted:
August 18,
2015
Received:
May 27,
2015
Footnotes
The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
