Some parents give children phones and tablets to soothe temper tantrums, but recent research finds that such practices prevent children from learning to regulate their emotions. This parenting strategy can also put children at risk of having anger management problems and problematic screen use later in life. They found that children who were more prone to anger had parents who used smartphones and tablets to calm them down.
These children also typically exhibited more frequent and intense anger responses and displayed poorer anger and frustration management skills a year later upon follow-up. They had higher levels of anger and were worse at exhibiting purposeful control of their emotions. “It’s not surprising that parents more frequently apply digital emotion regulation if their child has emotion regulation problems, but our results highlight that this strategy can lead to the escalation of a pre-existing issue,” Ms.
Konok said in the press release. According to the study, although using a digital device to distract a child from stressful stimuli or negative emotions can be effective in the short term at reducing emotional responses in young children, in the long term, it can cause rebounding effects that lead to avoidant coping behaviors, increased negative emotions, and dysregulation. Moreover, it could cause children to rely on digital devices for emotional regulation instead of developing internal self-regulatory skills, leading to “screen time tantrums” when d.