Program seeks Council approval for an initiative titled “Impact of Technology and Digital Media Exposure Usage on Child and Adolescent Development”. Technology and digital media (TDM) have become an integral part of our children’s and families’ daily lives. Most children and adolescents now engage with TDM starting from an early age, often with high levels of exposure across multiple devices and contexts and involving a wide range of content. There is an urgent need to understand how TDM use and exposure impacts children’s health and development, as well as how it alters the very nature of interactions between children and their family members, peers, and society at large.
In the first cycle of this initiative, NICHD supported 3 awards that have focused on building foundational knowledge, teams of researchers, and brought increased attention to the TDM field. This investment has provided exemplars of the types of methodologically rigorous research that will advance the scientific knowledge base, but, along with the TDM Research Workshop co-hosted with NIMH, has also surfaced gaps and challenges that must be addressed to enable progress going forward.
The goal of this initiative is to advance our understanding of how TDM impacts child and adolescent development by supporting innovative and transdisciplinary research. Our approach in this concept involves balancing risk while designing in flexibilities to more effectively pursue novel technologies and measurement approaches.
The proposed concept topic cuts across research portfolios within the Child Development and Behavior Branch and aligns with its stated emphasis on TDM. This initiative intends to complement investments within NICHD including but not limited to the Intellectual and Development and Disabilities Branch and the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research by being broadly inclusive of NICHD’s priority populations. Critically, this concept aligns with NICHD’s 2025 strategic plan theme focused on Improving Child and Adolescent Health and Transition to Adulthood and emphasis on capitalizing on advanced technologies and artificial intelligence to improve maternal, infant, child and adolescent health and birth outcomes. It will also provide opportunities to advance trans-disciplinary and cross-cutting scientific topics, as well as opportunities for project-embedded, career enhancing opportunities to support the next generation of scientists.
Program Contact
Virginia Salo
Child Development and Behavior Branch (CDBB)
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