If you’re a parent, you’re likely familiar with an all-too-common scene: you’re in the middle of something, whether cooking a meal or taking the family out to eat, and your child has a meltdown. Your mind races: what should I do? How do I calm my child.
Many times, handing your child a digital device (such as a tablet or smartphone) can seem like an easy solution. It defuses the existing situation and seems like a good remedy. The use of smart devices by children has also been rising. Currently, its estimated that over half of children ages three and four interact with a tablet or smartphone on a regular basis, and about half of children two and under interacting regularly with a smartphone. Despite the widespread use of devices, parents still ask: are these tools safe for kids.
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan School of Medicine suggests that this kind of solution, however, can pose emotional and behavioral problems later in life. Results of the study are published in a recent article in JAMA Pediatrics.
Specifically, researchers found that children with parents who used devices regularly as a soothing strategy were more like to experience a greater inability to regulate their emotions. This was especially prominent in boys and children who were already prone to or experienced hyperactivity or who had a temperament that made them more likely to have big responses to their emotions. Part of the reason, researchers argue, is because digital devices preclude children from developing effective, independent strategies to understand and regulate their emotions.
As part of the study, researchers followed 422 parents and 422 kids between the ages of three and five. Over a six-month period, researchers monitored parent-reported use of digital devices to calm children experience emotional difficulties. Researchers also looked for signs of emotional dysregulation to correlate to device usage; signs could include sudden changes in a mode, including quick movements between being sad and happy/excited.
Overall, while digital devices as a soothing technique was not categorically bad, researchers noted that they could be particularly problematic for children who already had trouble understand their emotions and their response to them. As long as it isn’t a regular thing, and other soothing methods are taught to children, intermittent use of digital devices is perfectly normal.
Sources: Science Daily; JAMA Pediatrics; Pew Research
