Screen media exposure and young children's vocabulary learning and development: A meta-analysis

Abstract This meta-analysis synthesizes research on media use in early childhood (0–6 years), word-learning, and vocabulary size. Multi-level analyses included 266 effect sizes from 63 studies (N total = 11,413) published between 1988–2022. Among samples with information about race/ethnicity (51%) and sex/gender (73%), most were majority White/Non-Hispanic and between 40%–60% female. Analyses revealed a small overall positive relation between screen media exposure and vocabulary (r = .23). Experimental studies yielded a small-to-medium effect (r = .30), with stronger effects for e-books than TV/video or games/apps, and non-significant effects for video chat. In correlational studies, there was no overall association between vocabulary size and naturalistic media exposure (r = .07), with the exception of naturalistic exposure to educational media (r = .17).