Young children’s screen time, executive functions, and language development: Longitudinal moderation of parent/child coviewing and media content.

= 4.0 months) using standardized assessments (e.g., National Institutes of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery) and Kochanska's effortful control/EF tasks (i.e., Snack Delay, Whisper, Day/Night). Higher screen time at age 2 was associated with poorer performance on both hot and cold EF tasks and lower receptive vocabulary at age 4. Parent-child coviewing predicted better working memory, and higher exposure to educational content was linked to stronger EF and language outcomes. However, neither coviewing nor educational content moderated the effects of screen time on developmental outcomes over time. In contrast, higher exposure to violent content moderated children's attentional shifting performance. Overall, these findings suggest that early screen exposure-particularly to violent content-may negatively impact children's cognitive/regulatory development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).