TO TECH OR NOT TO TECH
For one family, tech blackouts have been good for both children and grown-ups, too
Limiting digital screen time for the kids has benefits for the whole family, including more quality time together,
Monkey see, monkey do.
Parents have long known that kids emulate the behaviours they see in others — including their moms and dads.
But these days we’ve got to concern ourselves with something a lot more high stakes than the colourful language they may hear from the back seat in our moments of road rage.
Excessive use of screens — linked to numerous negative outcomes including unhealthy body weight, sleep debt, lower academic achievement and poorer emotional development — is more likely to occur in homes where parents are tethered to their tech.
A University of Guelph study published in the journal BMC Obesity in December found that kids’ screen use is intricately linked to the screen habits modelled by their parents.
Jess Haines, an associate professor in Guelph’s department of family relations and applied nutrition, said she and her colleagues were interested to know what parenting practices made the difference when it came to the amount of time their kids spend on screens.
Previous studies had examined mostly time spent in front of televisions and computers, but theirs included mobile technology, a crucial part of the picture given our proclivity for carrying our tech toys with us wherever we go. Plus, existing research focused on the influence moms have on their children, but neglected the role of dads, said Haines.
The study involved 62 children between 1 1⁄2 and 5 years of age and their parents (39 mothers, 25 fathers), who were part of the Guelph Family Health Study. It examined children’s use of mobile media devices (as well as television use) and included the role of fathers in media parenting, allowing a fuller understanding of the role mothers’ and fathers’ media parenting practices play on children’s screen time in the current media environment.
The researchers found that the screen habits of both parents influenced how much time kids spend on screens. When moms used devices in front of their children, their children had more screen time. “Similarly, if parents allow screens to be used during meal times, it is linked to children having more screen time overall,” Haines said.
With five kids ranging in age from 10 to 15 in his blended family, Barry Fraser of Rockwood, just outside of Guelph, says it was challenge for him and his wife to manage screen time. But the process has become easier since they began to use tech tools to simplify the process of enforcing the rules. He and his wife use Google Wi-Fi to turn access to the internet on and off.
“We set aside a couple hours between 5 and 7 p.m., where all the devices are blocked from Wi-Fi for homework time or to spend time outdoors,” Fraser said. “It also schedules sleep and wake up times, ensuring there’s no way the kids can be up until 3 a.m. online gaming.”
The tech blackouts have been good for the grown-ups, too.
“Setting boundaries has made us conscious of our usage and the example it sets as well.”
Here are the parenting habits the University of Guelph research found most effective for managing kids’ screen use. Make meal times screen free Time spent together around the table is invaluable for connecting as a family, but it’s also a place where going screen free pays big dividends. Since the study found that parents who keep tech away during meals have kids who use screens less, that’s a smart place to start.
“Having a family rule of ditching screen-based devices during meal time is a good way to reduce children’s screen time and engage is some great family conversations,” said PhD student Lisa Tang, lead author of the study. Don’t use screens to reward or punish The study made some surprising findings about a common parenting move: dealing out screen time for good behaviour and taking it away for bad. It found that when mothers and fathers provide screen time as a reward, or take it away as punishment, their kids spend more time on screens. “Although this may sound counterintuitive, it’s possible that when parents use screens to control behaviour, children place a higher value on screen time, which could result in children watching more of it,” Haines said.
Instead, parents may be better off simply setting tech on-and-off rules that apply all the time, like in Fraser’s household, rather than deciding on a daily basis whether behaviour merits device time, or if tech use is getting excessive. Although beyond the scope of this study, if you’re searching for alternates to taking away the iPad to manage behaviour, you could look for more logical consequences and incentives. Complain about chores? Get more chores. Treat your sister poorly? Make amends by writing a list of 10 of her finer qualities. Be on the same page Since the parenting practices of both moms and dads make a difference in children’s overall screen time, “its helpful if both parents are on the same page when it comes to how they want to manage their children’s screen time,” Tang said.
If you haven’t set your parenting goals for 2019, make it a priority to look at your family’s schedule, consider the hours of sleep each of you needs, set smart but realistic tech boundaries and clearly communicate those to everyone.
Haines said it’s helpful to remember that age-based recommendations for screen use as well: No more than two hours daily for children 5 and older, less than an hour for kids who are between 3 and 5, and no screen time at all for children 2 and under.
A mother herself, Haines said she knows from experience how hard it can be to set and stick to screen-time limits, particularly when her children are pressing for more.
“As a parent, I found it reassuring that this effort does seem to make a difference.”