Adverse Childhood Experiences and Excessive Recreational Screen Time Among Adolescents in the United Kingdom: A National Longitudinal Study

Purpose:
This study aimed to investigate the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and excessive recreational screen time.

Methods:
Using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, we examined the associations of prospectively collected individual ACEs, ACE scores, and poverty with excessive recreational screen time (>4 hours) across different media types. We ran further analyses to investigate sex differences in the associations of ACEs with excessive screen time. The robustness of these associations were tested by controlling for sociodemographic factors.

Results:
Among the included 11,439 adolescents (49.9% boys), those who experienced three or more ACEs were more likely to partake in excessive screen time compared to those with no ACEs after adjusting for covariates. This included recreational internet time at age 14, television time at age 14, electronic game time at ages 14 and 17, and social networking time at ages 14 and 17. We found similar associations between individual ACEs and excessive screen time. For example, parental mental health problems were associated with excessive recreational internet time (odds ratio [OR]: 1.28; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15, 1.42), excessive television time (OR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.28), and excessive electronic game time (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.16, 1.56) at age 14. Boys showed stronger associations between certain ACEs and excessive screen time compared to girls.

Discussion:
ACEs and poverty are associated with adolescents' later excessive recreational screen time, including excessive time spent on television watching, electronic games, and social networking.