Media emotion regulation and executive functions: individual differences in temporal ordering among young children

Using media to help children regulate difficult emotions (also called regulatory media use) is a process linked to the development of children’s executive functions. Although a necessary condition for establishing causality, the temporal ordering of the relationship between regulatory media use and executive functions has not been explicitly studied. In this study, we examined individual differences in the temporal ordering of the association between regulatory media use and executive functions using data from six waves of Project M.E.D.I.A. (spanning 2.5 years old to 7.5 years old). Three classes of temporal ordering were identified: Media Emotion Regulation Driven (7.00%), Bidirectional (87.36%), and Diverging Temporal Ordering (6.00%). Parent depression was negatively associated with the probability of children being classified in the Bidirectional class but was positively associated with the probability of children being classified in the Media Emotion Regulation Driven class.