Audience, Media, and Cultural Factors as Predictors of Multiscreen Use: A Comparative study of the Netherlands and the United States

Abstract

Statistics about the prevalence of media multitasking differ in stating that this behavior entails 20%–50% of our media time. An explanation of these differences could be the country of research. Previous cross-country studies have found that media multitasking was most prevalent in the United States and the least prevalent in the Netherlands. The current study seeks explanations of these differences by comparing survey data from the United States (n = 314) and the Netherlands (n = 328) and examining audience, media, and cultural factors as predictors of multiscreening, as a specific form of media multitasking. The results showed that multiscreening was more prevalent in the United States than in the Netherlands. Media factors are the most important predictor of multiscreen use. Audience and cultural factors differed by country and screen combination. This emphasizes the importance of cross-country research and examining predictors of a specific type of media multitasking.