Every parent worries about how screens might be affecting their kids, and as we’ve known for awhile, kids, seem to be more likely to develop emotional disorders, depending on screen time.
However, there’s a lot to learn about the relationship between the risk of kids developing emotional disorders and how much (and what type) of screens they use.
Enter a giant new meta study (study of studies) looking at 117 studies, worldwide, involving a total of over 292,000 kids.
Cross-cultural meta studies like this are useful because researchers are able to better tease out the true relationship in this link (for example, culture could be a powerful influence on screen time that mitigates whether screen time itself is harmful).
In other words, we want to figure out if screen time itself is damaging for kids, regardless of as many contexts as we can figure out.
For example, we know that when a lion takes a bite into you in Africa or the United States, it’s going to feel pretty much the same. Maybe you have better access to health care and emergency services in one place vs. the other so the outcome might be different, but the bite itself is equally painful, no matter where you go.
So is screen time for kids like a lion’s bite? Do its potentially harmful effects extend beyond borders, and are those effects inherent to the device and one’s relationship to it?
Based on this giant new meta study, yeah, it seems like it is.
So here are some of the study’s highlights on kids 10 years old and younger (the study itself was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin).
—– the more kids used screens, the more likely they were to go on to develop socioemotional problems, such as anxiety, depression, low self-confidence, aggression, hyperactivity. Even when you included things like socioeconomics, all that.
—–kids already experiencing emotional disorders were more likely to turn to screens, particularly gaming, as a way of coping with the problems in their external and inner lives.
Now, it’s important to note that, yes, that’s a two-way relationship, but not a chicken-egg thing, which many studies can’t figure out.
Based on the meta study, it seems kids who were genuinely “feeling pretty well” (my term and super unscientific) got worse after sustained screen time. That negative effect is real.
And also, kids who weren’t doing well also got worse after sustained screen time.
Researchers have wondered for awhile whether the negative relationship between increased screen time was just the understandable phenomena of kids resorting to screens thanks to pre-existing problems (almost like using alcohol to cope with awful circumstances).
Or… whether screens themselves caused issues.
Turns out both things are true. Which is further damning for screen time for kids younger than 10. The lion’s bite hurts equally bad, no matter where you are.
Now here are some more key findings.
—- Kids between 6-10 years old were more likely to develop these issues after extended screen time than kids 0-5 years old.
In other words, we often think “NOOOOOOO! That 3 year old should NOT be on screens.” But if we’re gonna freak out about that, it seems to be more scientifically valid to freak out over an 8 year old doing it.
—-What about screens for games versus entertainment or educational purposes? Well, this sucks. Yes, gaming seems to both cause more problems and kids with pre-existing struggles were also more likely to turn to games, which then exacerbated those issues.
What type of games? Just games. So don’t blame violent games anymore than regular ones. At least according to this study of studies.
—–Interestingly, increased screen time was more likely to lead to negative effects in girls than boys. Now here’s where that gets more interesting. Boys were more likely to turn to screens if they were having pre-existing problems, and then have the problems worsen. Girls were less likely to resort to screens in the face of prexisting problems than boys, but more likely to develop them as a result of screens. Fascinating relationship and a key bit of information.
Also, it’s interesting that we hear that a lot about teenage girls and screens, but this study was done on kids 10 years old and younger, so it seems that relationship begins quite awhile earlier popular culture assumes.
Finally, the deleterious effects of screens were dependent on time. The more time, the worse things got.
A “moderate” amount was okay, as long as it was well-balanced and not too heavily dependent on gaming. However, “moderate amount” is difficult to figure out in a meta study of 117 studies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children between the ages of 2 and 5 to limit recreational screen time to one hour per day on weekdays and three hours on weekends. Children who exceed recommended screen time guidelines were more prone to socioemotional issues compared to those who stayed within the recommended limits, according to the study.
So all this info is really important for parents, and instead of looking at just one study, this is a good one to reference because the researchers were able to better figure out causal relationships, and ones that developed over time.
And… they could better tell if screens themselves are the lion’s bite.
It’s a really good reference when setting up limits on kids’ screen time.
We have kids, and you might, too, and these findings probably check out.
Personally, I’m not someone who freaks out about it unless I can see it causing dysregulation, interfering with development (less playing outside, playing with friends, doing creative stuff on their own), or becoming a crutch.
Every kid is different, and parents can figure that out for themselves and it’s pretty easy to see what’s going on. Much harder to act on when screens are, effectively, free babysitters.
But, from personal experience, some screen time = okay for us. But gotta look closely at how it’s affecting each child and not get lulled into complacency or stirred up in anxiety about “OH NO EVEN 30 MINUTES WILL AFFECT THEM FOREVER.”
