Study Warns Against Using Smartphones, Tablets to Calm Preschoolers

According to a recent study, parents who turn to smartphones or tablets to pacify their young children may inadvertently foster poor anger management and other emotional issues (via CBC News).

(Image: CBC News)

The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, suggests that while using digital devices for emotional regulation can be effective in the short term, it may have detrimental long-term effects.

The study was conducted by researchers from Canada and Hungary and surveyed over 300 parents of children aged two to five in Nova Scotia. The parents answered questions about their own stress related to child-rearing, their children’s screen time habits, and the children’s temperament.

Lead author Veronika Konok, a researcher at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, noted that frequent use of digital devices to calm children can hinder their ability to learn emotional regulation.

“If parents regularly offer a digital device to their child to calm them or to stop a tantrum, the child won’t learn to regulate their emotions,” Konok stated.

Chriselle Vaz from Toronto shared her experience of relying on screens to manage her nearly four-year-old son, Caydin, while caring for a newborn. With limited family support, Vaz turned to digital devices to find moments of peace. “I had to rely on digital screens and devices to help me get some work done around the house,” she explained.

Michelle Ponti, a pediatrician in London, Ontario, and chair of the Canadian Paediatric Society’s digital health task force, emphasized the importance of face-to-face interactions for young children.

Dr. Michelle Ponti (Image: CBC News)

Ponti noted the cyclical nature of using screens as a calming strategy. “It often works very well in the short term. But what we learned from studies like this is that in the long term, it actually creates more of a problem because then it’s harder for that child to learn any new skills without the screen,” she said.

Vaz noted that how she approaches limiting her son’s device use affects his reaction. “The tantrum starts because he thinks I’m being kind of unfair to him or not too gentle with him,” she explained. However, when she suggests alternative activities like story time, he responds more positively.

The researchers plan to further investigate whether children with self-regulation issues are more likely to become dependent on digital devices, a phenomenon they term “digital pacifiers.”