Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment in Young Chinese Children: The Moderating Effect of Screen Time

This research investigates how screen time moderates the association between social avoidance and social adjustment in young Chinese children. The participants were N = 211 children (112 boys, 99 girls) ages 43-66 months (Mage = 58.84 months, SD = 5.30) recruited from eight classrooms in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, China. Maternal reports were obtained for measures of social avoidance and screen time, whereas teachers provided ratings of children's social adjustment. Results showed that social avoidance was positively correlated with internalizing problems, asocial behaviors, peer exclusion, and hyperactivity distraction, and negatively correlated with prosocial behaviors. There was a significant interaction between social avoidance and screen time. Specifically, the association between social avoidance and social adjustment problems strengthened as screen time increased in young Chinese children, with screen time moderating the associations of social avoidance with internalizing problems and with peer exclusion. This finding confirms that excessive screen time may exacerbate the tendency of social avoidance, thus negatively impacting children's social adjustment.