Assessment of Developmental Indicators in Children Aged 24 to 38 Months in Relation to Screen Exposure: A Cross Sectional Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 2. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Education of Exceptional Children, Faculty of Psychology and Education, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of psychology and education of exceptional children

3 Clinical family psychology-family institute -University of Shahid Beheshti- Tehran/Iran

4 Department of psychology and education of exceptional children - faculty of psychology and educational sciences-University of Tehran-Tehran/Iran

5 University of Alamme Tabatabaei - Tehran/Iran

10.48308/apsy.2026.243245.1966

Abstract

Aim: With the rapid expansion of digital technologies, early screen exposure has become a growing concern in developmental research. This study aimed to evaluate developmental indicators in children aged 24 to 38 months who were regularly exposed to screen media.
Method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross‑sectional design was employed. The study population included children aged 24 to 38 months who attended two counseling centers in Tehran in 2024 and were exposed to screen media for more than one hour per day. Using simple random sampling, 134 children were selected. Data were collected through the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition (ASQ‑3; Squires & Bricker, 2009), the Screen Media Questionnaire (Klakk et al., 2020), clinical interviews with parents, and direct observation of each child by specialists. For data analysis, a one‑sample t‑test was conducted for the 27‑ and 36‑month age groups, and the nonparametric one‑sample Wilcoxon test was used for the 33‑month group. Analyses were performed using SPSS‑27.
Results: Results showed that children scored significantly below the cutoff points across all developmental domains (p < 0.001). The greatest decline was observed in the problem‑solving domain, while the smallest decline occurred in fine motor skills.
Conclusion: Overall, the findings indicate that children with daily screen exposure exceeding one hour demonstrated reduced performance in all developmental domains, with the widest gap appearing in problem‑solving abilities. These results underscore the need for careful monitoring and management of screen use during early childhood to promote healthy developmental trajectories.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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