screen time and addictive screen behavior: restricting screens in bedrooms and at mealtimes and modeling healthy practices at home. The study found that limiting the use of screens in bedrooms and during meals has the most significant impact on children’s screen usage, but it is also essential for parents to model healthy screen habits. The research suggests that these strategies are effective in reducing excessive screen time and addictive behaviors related to screens in children.
Restricting use in bedrooms and at mealtimes have the biggest impact, but modeling good behavior is also important.
For many parents, it can feel like curbing kids’ screen use is a losing battle. But new research from UC San Francisco (UCSF) has found the parenting practices that work best to curbResearchers conducted a study on the impact of screen time and addictive screen behavior on 12- to 13-year-olds. The study included questions about the frequency of screen use for non-school related activities such as gaming, texting, social media, video chatting, watching videos, and browsing the internet. The researchers also inquired about the problematic nature of the screen use. Additionally, parents were asked about their own screen usage in front of their children, how they monitored and restricted their kids’ screen time, and whether they used it as a method of reward or punishment. The study also looked into the family’s screen use during mealtimes and in bedrooms.A new study published on June 5th suggests that children’s use of screens in the bedroom and at mealtime is linked to increased time and addictive use. However, the study also found that when parents kept track of and limited their kids’ screen time, and when they modeled healthy behavior themselves, the use of screens went down. Jason Nagata, MD, a pediatrician at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and the first author of the study, expressed optimism about the results, stating that parents can employ concrete strategies to manage their tweens’ and young teens’ screen time, such as setting limits, monitoring their kids’ screen use, and avoiding screens in bedrooms and at mealtimes.
Pediatric Research. “Also, try to practice what you preach.”
Refining AAP guidance
The research investigated the impact of parenting strategies recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) on tweens, who are children and adolescents aged 5 to 18 years old. This study stands out as one of the few that focuses on how parenting practices influence screen use in early adolescence, a period when children begin to assert their independence.
“We specifically chose to examine young adolescents, as they are at a stage when mobile phone and social media usage tends to increase and shapes their behavior.
According to Nagata, the study focused on predicting children’s future habits.
Data was gathered from 10,048 participants in the U.S., with 46% representing racial or ethnic minorities, from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.
Parents were requested to assess their level of agreement with statements such as, “My child falls asleep using a screen-based device,” using a scale from 1 to 4.
The researchers then examined how parental agreement levels correlated with the children’s daily screen time and found that each additional point related to bedroom screen use led to an increase of 1.6 hours. A similar trend was observed for screen use during mealtimes, with an increase of 1.2 hours.”Screen time at bedtime displaces sleep time, which is essential for health and development in young children,” explained the researcher. Increasing screen time by 4 hours was found to be linked with poor modeling by parents, while limiting and monitoring kids’ screen time reduced it by 1.29 hours and 0.83 hours. However, using screen time as a reward or punishment was not effective and actually resulted in an increase of 0.36 hours, as well as more problematic video game use. The researcher emphasized that while screens can have benefits in moderations such as maintaining social connections and fostering community, excessive use can lead to mental health problems, physical inactivity, and sleep issues, especially in children.Nagata suggested that parents should consider keeping electronic screens out of their children’s bedrooms and turning off devices and notifications overnight.
