Tablet use in early childhood may promote angry outbursts and emotional dysregulation as the child grows, a study in JAMA Pediatricshas found.
Caroline Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., of the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec, and colleagues examined data from 315 children whose parents completed the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire each year from 2020 to 2022, when their children were 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years old. The parents also reported on their children’s tablet use.
The children spent an average of 6.5 hours per week (0.92 hours per day) using tablets when they were 3.5 years old, 6.7 hours per week (0.95 hours per day) when they were 4.5 years old, and 7.0 hours per week (1 hour per day) when they were 5.5 years old.
The researchers found that each 69-minute increase in tablet use when the children were 3.5 years old was associated with a 22% increase in expressions of anger and frustration when they were 4.5 years old. In turn, each standard deviation increase in anger and frustration at 4.5 years was associated with an increase of roughly 17 minutes in tablet use at 5.5 years.
“These findings indicate that tablet use can undermine child ability to effectively manage emotions during daily routines,” the researchers wrote. “Furthermore, children who express more anger may come to elicit more digital strategies to temper outbursts.”
The researchers noted prior studies that suggest children learn emotional regulation by watching parental emotional regulation and when parents engage in emotion-focused parenting such as providing emotional coaching. “More frequent child use of tablets could reduce learning opportunities afforded by these mechanisms and undermine the development of emotional regulation strategies,” they wrote.
“Our study suggests that parents be sensitized that tablet use in early childhood can disrupt the ability to manage anger and frustration and lead to increased outbursts in young children,” the researchers concluded.
For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Slower Development of Young Children May Be Linked to Excess Screen Time.”
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