Digital media use among school-aged dual language learners in Chinese American families: Links to socioecological factors and children's oral language proficiencies.

Limited research has examined digital media use (DMU) in dual language learners (DLLs). This study examined the daily usage time, content, and language of DMU in a longitudinal sample of 120 Chinese-English DLLs (Time 1 [T1] age range = 4.33-7.33 years, Time 2 [T2] age range = 6.01-9.44 years, 42% girls) from low-income families. Children's heritage (HL) and English (EL) oral language proficiencies at T1 (collected August 2020-April 2023) were measured by language tests. At T2 (collected June 2022-December 2024), parents reported DLLs' device ownership and daily DMU time by content (entertainment videos, education, social, gaming) and primary DMU language (HL or EL). The primary aim was to examine the concurrent links between socioecological factors and DLLs' DMU. In partial support of our hypothesis, socioeconomic status was negatively associated with gaming time (β = -.35, p < .001), and parents' years in the United States (β = .03, p < .05) were positively associated with gaming time. An exploratory aim was to test the prospective relations between DLLs' HL and EL oral language proficiencies at T1 and their DMU time in HL and EL at T2. Neither DLLs' HL nor EL oral proficiencies predicted their DMU in HL or EL. Results highlighted the heterogeneity in DLLs' DMU time varying by content and language and its differential relations to family socioecological factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).