Although problematic media use among adolescents is of wide interest, less is known regarding problematic media use among younger children. The current study reports on the development and validation of a parent-report measure of one potential aspect of children’s problematic use-screen media addiction-via the Problematic Media Use Measure (PMUM). Items were based on the nine criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder in the DSM-5. The first study describes the development and preliminary validation of the PMUM in a sample of 291 mothers. Mothers (80.8% identified as White) of children 4 through 11 years of age completed the PMUM and measures of child screen time and child psychosocial functioning. EFA indicated a unidimensional construct of screen media addiction. The final versions of the PMUM (27 items) and PMUM Short Form (PMUM-SF, 9 items) evidenced high internal consistency (Cronbach α = .97 and α = .93, respectively). Regression analyses were conducted to examine convergent validity of the PMUM with indicators of child psychosocial functioning. Convergent validity was supported and the PMUM scales also independently predicted children’s total difficulties in functioning, over and above hours of screen time, indicating incremental validity. The second study sought to confirm the factor structure of the PMUM-SF and test for measurement invariance across gender. In a sample of 632 parents, we confirmed the factor structure of the PMUM-SF and found measurement invariance for boys and girls. These studies support the use of the PMUM-SF as a measure of screen media addiction in children ages 4 through 11 years old.

Purpose of review To highlight the recent findings on sleep–obesity associations in children. We focus on sleep duration, sleep timing and chronotype, and describe the potential mechanisms underlying sleep–obesity associations. Recent findings Poor sleep is increasingly common in children and associations between short sleep duration in early childhood and obesity are consistently found. Less is known about the infancy period, and the findings in adolescents are inconsistent. Sleep timing patterns may also contribute to obesity risk. Variable and shifted sleep schedules and evening chronotypes have recently been linked to adiposity in adults; less is known about children. Further, there is little understanding regarding the mechanisms of association. The timing of eating, dietary intake, obesogenic eating behaviors, and changes in appetite-regulating hormones have been identified as possible mechanisms for sleep–obesity associations and may be promising avenues for future research. Longitudinal and experimental work with children is needed to determine the nature of associations. Summary Beyond sleep duration, sleep timing patterns may contribute to obesity risk. Biological and behavioral processes have been proposed as mechanisms that may explain the association. Understanding the pathways through which poor sleep patterns could increase obesity risk in children may provide novel avenues for intervention.

Summary: Early childhood is a period of dramatic change in sleep and emotion processing, as well as a time when disturbance in both domains are first detected. Although sleep is recognized as central in emotion processing and psychopathology, the great majority of experimental data have been collected in adults. We examined the effects of acute sleep restriction (nap deprivation) on toddlers’ emotion expression. Ten healthy children (seven females; 30–36 months old) followed a strict sleep schedule (≥12.5 h time in bed per 24‐h) for 5 days, before each of two randomly assigned afternoon emotion assessments following Nap and No‐Nap conditions (resulting in an 11‐day protocol). Children viewed emotion‐eliciting pictures (five positive, three neutral, three negative) and completed puzzles (one solvable, one unsolvable). Children’s faces were video‐recorded, and emotion displays were coded. When sleep restricted, children displayed less confusion in response to neutral pictures, more negativity to neutral and negative pictures, and less positivity to positive pictures. Sleep restriction also resulted in a 34% reduction in positive emotion responses (solvable puzzle), as well as a 31% increase in negative emotion responses and a 39% decrease in confused responses (unsolvable puzzle). These findings suggest sleep is a key factor in how young children respond to their world. When sleep restricted, toddlers are neither able to take full advantage of positive experiences nor are they as adaptive in challenging contexts. If insufficient sleep consistently ‘taxes’ young children’s emotion responses, they may not manage emotion regulation challenges effectively, potentially placing them at risk for future emotional/behavioral problems.