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BUDAPEST — In today’s digital age, it’s become increasingly common for parents to hand their upset child a smartphone or tablet to calm them down. But could this seemingly harmless practice be hindering children’s emotional development? A new study from researchers at Eötvös Loránd University and the Université de Sherbrooke suggests that using digital devices as emotional pacifiers may have unintended long-term consequences.
The study, published in Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, followed 265 Canadian families with preschool-aged children over the course of a year. The researchers aimed to understand the relationship between parents using digital devices to regulate their children’s emotions and the development of children’s self-regulatory skills.
Digital pacifiers and self-regulation
Self-regulation is a crucial skill that develops in early childhood. It involves the ability to manage one’s emotions, control impulses, and direct attention. These skills are essential for success in school and later in life. They help children navigate social situations, focus on tasks, and cope with frustration.
The researchers looked at three specific aspects of self-regulation: anger management, effortful control, and impulsivity. Anger management relates to how well a child can handle frustration and angry feelings. Effortful control involves the ability to focus attention and inhibit inappropriate responses. Impulsivity refers to how quickly a child acts without thinking.
What the study found was concerning. Parents who frequently used digital devices to calm their children when upset saw negative effects on their kids’ self-regulation skills a year later. Children whose parents often relied on “digital pacifiers” showed more difficulty managing anger and had lower levels of effortful control.
Imagine a scenario where a child is having a tantrum in a grocery store. A parent, desperate for a quick fix, hands over their smartphone to distract and calm the child. While this might work in the moment, the study suggests that repeatedly using this strategy could prevent the child from learning how to manage their emotions on their own.
Interestingly, the relationship also worked in the other direction, albeit to a lesser extent. Children who had more difficulty managing anger at the beginning of the study were more likely to have parents who used digital devices for emotional regulation a year later. This suggests a potential cycle where children’s difficult behavior leads to more reliance on digital pacifiers, which in turn may worsen self-regulation skills.
“Here we show that 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,” explains the study’s first author Dr. Veronika Konok, a researcher at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, in a statement. “This leads to more severe emotion-regulation problems, specifically, anger management problems, later in life.”
‘Tantrums cannot be cured by digital devices’
This research comes at a time when children’s screen time is at an all-time high. The COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend, with many children spending more time than ever in front of screens for both education and entertainment.
While digital devices can be valuable tools for learning and connection, this study highlights the importance of being mindful about how and when we use them with young children. Instead of relying on screens to soothe upset children, parents might consider alternative strategies that help kids learn to manage their emotions.
For example, parents could try talking through emotions with their child, using deep breathing exercises, or engaging in a calming activity together like reading a book or coloring. These approaches may take more time and effort in the moment, but they could pay off in the long run by helping children develop crucial self-regulation skills.
The study’s findings serve as a wake-up call for parents, educators, and policymakers. As we navigate the digital age, it’s crucial to consider the long-term impacts of our technology use on child development. While screens aren’t inherently harmful, how we use them matters. By being more intentional about our use of digital devices, we can help ensure that children develop the emotional skills they need to thrive in today’s world.
“Tantrums cannot be cured by digital devices,” says Konok. “Children have to learn how to manage their negative emotions for themselves. They need the help of their parents during this learning process, not the help of a digital device.”
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers conducted a longitudinal study, following 265 Canadian families with preschool-aged children over one year. Parents completed questionnaires at two time points, one year apart. These questionnaires assessed how often parents used digital devices to calm their children (parental digital emotion regulation or PDER) and measured children’s self-regulation skills using the Child Behavior Questionnaire. The study also accounted for factors like parenting stress, child screen time, and family demographics. The researchers then used statistical models to examine how PDER and children’s self-regulation skills influenced each other over time.
Results
The study found that higher use of parental digital emotion regulation at the first time point predicted higher levels of anger and lower levels of effortful control in children a year later. However, it did not predict changes in impulsivity. In the reverse direction, higher levels of anger in children at the first time point showed a tendency to predict higher PDER a year later, but this relationship was not as strong. Impulsivity and effortful control at the first time point did not predict later PDER.
Limitations
The study had several limitations. It relied on parent reports rather than direct observations, which could introduce bias. The measure of PDER was based on a single question, which might not capture the full complexity of the behavior. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced screen use patterns. Additionally, the sample may not be representative of all families, as it was based on convenience sampling in Canada.
Discussion and Takeaways
The researchers suggest that their findings reveal a potentially problematic cycle. Parents of children with difficult temperaments may be more likely to use digital devices for emotion regulation. However, this strategy may hinder the development of children’s self-regulation skills, potentially leading to more emotional difficulties in the future. The study highlights the need for alternative strategies to help children manage their emotions.
The authors suggest that while digital devices can be useful tools, their use for emotion regulation in young children should be limited. They emphasize the importance of supporting parents in finding other ways to help their children develop emotional regulation skills. The study also underscores the need for more research on the long-term impacts of digital media use on child development, particularly in the realm of emotional regulation.
Note: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
