screen time | Integrated Learning Therapy

A vicious circle between screen time and emotional problems?

Jun 19, 2025 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

An article by the American Psychological Association (details below) finds that there seems to be a vicious circle between the amount of time spent on screens and emotional problems in children. While spending a lot of time on various screens may lead to emotional and behavioural problems, these problems can result to children spending even more time on their screens.

The article describes how an international team of researchers reviewed and meta-analysed 117 studies, covering data from over 292,000 children worldwide.

The researchers wanted to better understand the relationship between screen time and emotional problems like aggression, anxiety or low self-confidence. Screen-based activities included social media, video games, TV watching and online homework.

Most of the studies were conducted in the United States (41 studies), followed by Canada (13), Australia (11), and Germany and the Netherlands (7 each).

The study revealed that the more children engaged with electronic screens the more likely they were to develop socio-emotional problems. This included both internalising problems, such as anxiety and depression, and externalising problems, such as aggression and hyperactivity. Conversely, children experiencing socio-emotional problems were found to be more likely to turn to screens as a coping mechanism.

The research identified several factors that may moderate these relationships. Compared with younger children (ages 0-5), older children (ages 6-10) were more likely to develop socio-emotional problems with greater screen use. Girls were generally more susceptible to developing socio-emotional problems with greater screen use, while boys were more likely to increase screen use when facing socio-emotional challenges.

The type of screen content and purpose of screen use also played a role. Gaming was associated with higher risks compared with educational or recreational screen use. Children experiencing socio-emotional problems were also more likely to turn to games to cope.

The findings suggest parents might want to be cautious about what screens they allow and to monitor the amount of time spent on screens. It was also noted that children who use screens heavily might need emotional support, not just restrictions.

More information: Electronic Screen Use and Children’s Socioemotional Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies, Psychological Bulletin (2025). DOI: 10.1037/bul0000468

Journal information: Psychological Bulletin

Provided by American Psychological Association

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Does screen time interfere with parent-toddler interaction?

Sep 10, 2024 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

Ernie Mundell, writing for Health Day, reports on research findings concerning toddlers amount of screen time and how it may impact on their interaction with parents or other caregivers.

In short, the study showed that using TVs and tablets as “e-babysitters” significantly cuts down on the time toddlers spend interacting with parents or other caregivers.

The Australian team of investigators are calling the phenomenon “technoference”—a scenario where “young children’s exposure to screen time is interfering with opportunities to talk and interact in their home environment.”

Current guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics for kids ages 2 to 5 recommend “no more than one hour per day [of media use], to allow children ample time to engage in other activities important to their health and development.”

Unfortunately, many toddlers are being exposed to screens at much higher rates than that.

“Increases in screen time were associated with decreases in measures of parent-child talk,” the researchers found.

By the age of 3, the average child in the study was watching some type of screen for two hours and 52 minutes each day.

And “for every additional minute of screen time, children heard fewer adult words, spoke fewer vocalizations and engaged in fewer back-and-forth interactions,” the researchers found.

Put more concretely, by the age of 3 every extra minute spent looking at a TV or computer screen was linked to 6.6 fewer words spoken with an adult that day.

Parents may not be aware of the impact of screen time on kids’ development and may need to understand the potential association of screen time with opportunities for children and adults to talk and interact in their home environment.

More information: Find out more about media’s impact on your toddler at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Mary E. Brushe et al, Screen Time and Parent-Child Talk When Children Are Aged 12 to 36 Months, JAMA Pediatrics (2024). DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.6790

Journal information: JAMA Pediatrics

Image supplied by Freepix.

Can screen time help language development?

Aug 30, 2023 | I'm a Parent, I'm a Teacher, ILT Blog

If used thoughtfully, time spent with a child in front of a screen can help to increase a child’s vocabulary and general language ability. The positive outcomes result from the parent and child discussing the content with each other. It is, however, possible that screen time can have the opposite effect.

According to a study published in Children, the more time preschool-aged children spend alone in front of screens, the poorer their lexical skills and general language level. “The more screen time mothers had, the narrower the vocabulary used by the children and the poorer their language ability on a general level. A negative association with vocabulary and general language ability was stronger if both the child and mother spent a lot of time independently using devices,” says speech and language therapist and Doctoral Researcher Riikka Mustonen from the Department of Psychology and Logopedics at the University of Helsinki. In the study, screen time denoted any time spent in front of televisions, game consoles, computers, smart phones and tablets.

Mustonen points out that screen time is only one factor among many that can affect children’s language development. “It should be kept in mind that language development is also affected by many other environmental factors, as well as genes in smaller children in particular.”

Image supplied by Freepik