A new study finds that the biggest predictor of kids’ screen time is how much their parents use their devices.
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Kathleen Finlay/Getty Images
It’s me. Hello. The problem is me. It’s me.
As a parent of early and late teenage kids, I couldn’t help but be reminded of these Taylor Swift lyrics when I read about a new study examining the link between parenting strategies and young adolescents’ screen use.
The study looked at data from more than 10,000 12- to 13-year-olds and their parents, asking them about their screen-use habits, including texting, social media, video chatting, watching videos, and browsing the internet. Researchers also asked whether screen use was problematic — for example, whether children felt they couldn’t stop using screens even though they wanted to, and whether their screen habits were interfering with their schoolwork or daily life.
The key finding that stood out to me was that it was one of the biggest predictors of how much time kids spend on screens. and whether its use is problematic It’s about how much screen time parents themselves are using when around their children.
““It’s really important to model screen behavior for kids,” said Jason Nagata, a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study published in the journal Neuroscience. Pediatric Research. “flat Even though teens say they aren’t influenced by their parents, the data shows that parents actually have a bigger influence than they think.”
“It’s very common for parents like me to feel guilty about our own screen use,” says Jenny Radesky, a developmental behavioral pediatrician and media researcher at the University of Michigan.
But rather than beating ourselves up about it, she says it’s important for parents to realise that, just like our kids, we are vulnerable to the temptations of technology that are deliberately designed to keep us scrolling.
“We’ve been asked to raise our children in an increasingly complex digital ecosystem that actively resists setting limits for ourselves and our children,” she says.
But even though parents are battling powerful forces trying to keep us glued to screens, that doesn’t mean we’re completely powerless. Nagata’s study looked at which parenting strategies are most effective at curbing screen use, especially in early adolescence, because this is a time when kids are seeking more independence, and “when they become teenagers, they tend to spend a lot of time with media,” he said.
So what works?
Some of the findings seem pretty clear: Avoiding screens during mealtimes and bedtime are strategies strongly linked to reducing kids’ screen time and reducing problematic screen use. Nagata’s previous research also found that keeping screens out of the bedroom is a good strategy, as devices in the bedroom make it harder for preteens to fall asleep and stay asleep.
As for the finding that parental screen use also matters so much, Radesky said it lines up with what he often hears from teens in his work as co-medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Center of Excellence on Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health.
“We often hear from teens that when their parents are on their phones, they’re stuck on their social media accounts and just don’t seem available,” Radesky says. “They don’t seem ready for their teen to approach them and talk to them and have their opinions heard.”
Given technology’s addictive design, Radesky says parents shouldn’t be blamed. The message is to talk to your kids about why they’re drawn to screens. Ask yourself: “Why are you spending so much time on this app? Is this time that you feel is truly meaningful and enriches your day? Or is it time that you’d rather displace with something else?”
She says she supports this collaborative approach of setting boundaries around screen use for pre-teens and teens, rather than using screens as a reward or punishment to control behavior. In fact, new research shows that, at least in this age group, using screens as a reward or punishment can actually backfire. This has led to kids spending more time on their devices.
Instead, Radesky says it’s best to set consistent guidelines for screen use as a family so kids know when they can and can’t use screens without becoming obsessed with “earning” screen time.
And when it comes to pre-teens and teens, coming up with these rules together can be a good way to hold them to boundaries and help both kids and parents break bad screen habits.
This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh.
