Screen time and sedentary behaviour in the early years (Part 4): What do parents think about screen time? Is it really THAT bad?

Dr Breanne Kunstler (BBiomedSci, BHealthSci, MPhysio, PhD).

Last week I wrote about the psychological health impacts of high screen time on children. This is the fourth post in a series of five posts on kids' screen time and will involve examining some of the perceptions parents have of screen time and if it is really all that bad.

Parents, naturally, have the best interests of their children in the forefront of their minds at all times. However, this doesn’t mean that their intentions to do what they think is best for their child is actually what they do (see the ‘intention-behaviour gap’). This isn’t because they are terrible people or that they are selfish. Rather, life gets in the way and sometimes they just need to put the infant down in front of the TV so they can go to the toilet. In fact, 85% of Australian parents report using screens as a “digital babysitter”, allowing them to get things done. I’m certainly one of those 85%.

Image 1: A digital babysitter can be really handy sometimes (credit: boredpanda.com)

The use of screens, especially as a babysitter, creates tension between two thirds of Australian parents who are concerned about the amount of time their young children spend in front of screens. However, the other third of Australian parents place no limits on screen time or content their children are exposed to. These parents might live in lower socioeconomic or poorer areas (i.e. limiting opportunities for outdoor play), work a lot, have a high conflict or single parent home, or have low education levels. Or maybe they just aren't that fussed about screen time?

Parents think there are both benefits and risks for kids participating in screen time. Some parents think screen time can benefit kids by giving them the opportunity to relax (e.g. watching TV) or learn (e.g. educational apps). However, parents also think that there are risks related to their kids participating in screen time, such as forming bad habits (e.g. playing video games as soon as they get home from school), viewing inappropriate content, not socialising and experiencing poor health outcomes (e.g. poor sleep). So, parents can see both positives and negatives of screen time. I am one of these parents.

Image 2: Oh the GUILT! Surely Abby watching some female cricket legends is good for her? (credit: Twitter)

Parents’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours can influence the amount of screen time children participate in. Parents who spend a lot of time in front of screens (e.g. computers and TV) tend to have kids who do the same. In contrast, parents who are physically active themselves (especially mothers) and support their pre-schoolers to be active tend to have pre-schoolers who participate in physical activity instead of screen time (you can read more about this 'displacement hypothesis' in my earlier post).

Parents who actively play with their kids also tend to have more active kids. Conversely, parents who find playing with their kids boring tend to have kids who have greater screen time. Is this a case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’? Kids might be copying their parents’ (and siblings’) behaviours either because they have no choice (i.e. they are often with their parents, so they do what their parents do) or that’s just what they choose to do because that’s what they perceive to be normal behaviour. I am physically active, so I hope that Abby is just as active. However, I also really enjoy spending time on my phone and computer…

Image 3: It's all about balance. Abby gets it (credit: pinterest.com and shuttershock.com)

I have written a lot about the potential negative physical and psychological health outcomes related to screen time, but surely there are some positives too? It can’t be all bad! Can it?

There are some positives. Let’s go though some.

The Goldilocks theory involves a ‘too hot, too cold and just right’ approach to screen time, where more than 2 hours (too hot) and less than one hour (too cold) of screen time is deleteriously related to depression in kids and right in the middle (1 hour) is ‘just right’. The magic ‘1 hour’ number is not going to be perfect for every kid, for example screen time goes from being a positive thing to being detrimental to adolescent psychological wellbeing at about 4 hours of recreational computer use.

Image 4: Goldilocks loves digging into the 'just right' amount of screen time (credit: taleswithgigi.com)

Screen time can have benefits for work and play. It has had a huge positive influence on how we learn and, from pre-school to university to employment, with internet connectivity and access to certain software helping us to build knowledge and foster creativity. Screens also allow us to engage in texting, social media, video games and educational TV programs, which can all have positive effects on racial attitudes, connection (especially if ‘real life friendships’ are lacking in quality) and socialisation.

Screen time can also make life, particularly leisure time, just that little bit more fun. Screens allow us to watch the movies and TV shows we love, as well as all the cat video compilations we can’t live without (Video 1, you're welcome).

Video 1: Take a couple of minutes and relax with some screen time (credit: YouTube)

Don’t forget the PokemonGo craze. This active video game went a long way to getting people off their bums and walking around their neighbourhoods, thereby allowing screens to make up for all the apparently bad things they do by getting kids (and adults) more active.

Image 5: Lots of walking was done, but does anyone know where they were actually going? (credit: observer.com)

Although I wasn’t convinced that large amounts of screen time was related to poor developmental outcomes in a previous post, maybe the relationship is the opposite? Maybe screen time is positively related to development? Even violent video games have been found to positively influence cognitive skills like self-direction, discovery, mastery, problem solving, spatial reasoning and creativity. Shooting games might even be beneficial for attention, and visual and spatial processing. Even educational TV programs can help to broaden children’s imagination. Ok, calm down keyboard warriors, I said maybe.

I’m not trying to say that screen time is a great thing. I think we have plenty of research to suggest that it might be detrimental to some aspects of physical and psychological health, but we can also see some potential benefits. However, I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater just yet. That reminds me, it’s time to wrap up this post and bath Abby.

We have learnt in this post that parental behaviours and attitudes can influence the amount of time kids spend in front of screens and being active. This has inspired my next post on what we, as parents, can feasibly do to ensure our children (and maybe even ourselves) have a functioning and healthy relationship with our screens.

Happy reading!