Parents who give their child their phone to calm him down when he’s impatient could be in trouble: this strategy could backfire and even harm their little one in the long term.
At least that’s the conclusion drawn by Caroline Fitzpatrick, an education researcher at the University of Sherbrooke, from the observation of 315 Nova Scotians aged 3 and 4. “Each hour spent in front of a screen at three and a half years old increases the manifestations of anger a year later”, says Mme Fitzpatrick.
The study was done during the pandemic, even though it was planned before. “I was surprised to see how long the children spent in front of a screen: three and a half hours a day, says the specialist. Recommendations are one hour at this age. And we are talking about favored families. Half of participating families earned more than $100,000 and 80% were married. The average age of the parents was 35 years old.
How are screens harmful?
Children need to develop ways of dealing with their emotions on their own. If we give them games, something to draw, it’s creative, it helps them develop this ability. And screen time, at its core, can replace more creative pursuits, especially those that engage the imagination.
Caroline Fitzpatrick, education researcher at the University of Sherbrooke
fathers and mothers
Were there differences between fathers and mothers, boys and girls? “No, not at all, it’s a bit surprising,” says M.me Fitzpatrick. And between parents more involved in the care of children and those who work more? “Anecdotally, we hear that fathers are more likely to provide their children with a screen to occupy them, whereas mothers have more established rules for limiting screen time, but we could not verify this with our sample. »
Other studies have shown that the more anger a child has, the more screens they have access to. “We wanted to see if the opposite link was also true,” says Ms.me Fitzpatrick. In fact, we did not see a link between the children’s seizure propensity at the start of follow-up and their screen time. So it seems to be the screen that leads to tantrums. Regardless of initial anger level, screen exposure led to a similar increase in seizure frequency. »
Could the pandemic have skewed the data? “We have done as many checks as possible to eliminate the influence of pandemic anxiety on parents and family life,” says the Sherbrooke researcher, whose study was published Thursday in the journal Pediatric Research.
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SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF IOWA