Study Tablet Use for Toddlers May Affect Their Mood and Emotion Regulation
TapTechNews August 13th news, a new study released on Monday shows that using tablets for toddlers may lead to them having irritability problems in the future, which further confirms that the prevailing mobile devices are hindering the healthy growth of children.
According to TapTechNews, according to the peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, using a tablet at the age of 3.5 is significantly associated with the tendency to be irritable and frustrated a year later.
In order to explore the relationship between tablet use and the angry outbursts of young children, scholars from Canada, South Africa, and Brazil conducted a questionnaire survey among 315 parents of preschool children in Nova Scotia, Canada, and evaluated the children's expressions of anger and frustration at the ages of 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5.
The results showed that using a tablet at the age of 4.5 is also related to an increase in the number of angry and frustrated outbursts at the age of 5.5. In addition, the researchers found that children who were irritable and frustrated at the age of 4.5 tended to use a tablet more at the age of 5.5, indicating that the tablet may have led to a vicious cycle of negative emotions.
The research team pointed out that the use of a tablet not only weakens the children's ability to effectively manage emotions in daily life, but also prompts them to rely more on digital means to calm emotional outbursts.
Researchers said that it is currently unclear why using a tablet or other mobile devices interferes with the emotional development of children. They said there is evidence that children learn emotion regulation through two key ways, one is by observing the emotion regulation strategies of parents, and the other is receiving emotional coaching about emotion management from parents. Researchers said that the use of a tablet may interfere with these two mechanisms and may reduce learning opportunities and undermine the development of strategies used to regulate emotions.
Researchers said that this study only observed whether children use a tablet, and future research should further examine the usage patterns. For example, the impact of actively using a tablet to read may be different from passive watching videos, and the use with parents' accompaniment will also be different from using alone. The researchers also pointed out that there is evidence that with the appropriate guidance of parents, a tablet can help children practice recognizing and responding to emotions, thereby improving behavior rather than causing more emotional outbursts.
Previous studies have shown that using a mobile phone or tablet to pacify a tantruming child may damage their emotion management ability and also affect the development of their key language and social skills.
According to the data of the US Census Bureau, 80% of US families with children have a tablet.