25 June, 2024
A Parent’s Guide to Screen Time
I decided to go a little left field for this blog post.
This week’s module was about the impacts of screen time on the health of children and adolescents. I personally do not teach children or adolescents anymore, but I am a mother of two (eight and five years old), and screen time is a regular battle in our household. I am often at a loss as to how to prevent excess screen time, but through this module I have become more aware of the potential health impacts awaiting my children if I do not make changes.
This entry will explore the health impacts of excess screen time, as well as provide some tips and tools for parents to get their kids off their screens.
Some Health Impacts:
Learn More:
While we are all aware to some degree that too much screen time can negatively impact our health, I wonder if many of us understand the extent of this impact. Below is a non-exhaustive list of potential health concerns directly related to excessive screen time for children and adolescents.
Some of them are fairly obvious and well-known. Others I found quite surprising.
Obesity
-
Cholesterol Levels (lower HDL levels)
-
Stress Regulation (cortisol dysregulation)
-
Poor Sleep Quality
-
High Blood Pressure
-
Vision Impairment
-
Orthopedics (bone density)
-
Depression
-
ADHD
-
Obesity - Cholesterol Levels (lower HDL levels) - Stress Regulation (cortisol dysregulation) - Poor Sleep Quality - High Blood Pressure - Vision Impairment - Orthopedics (bone density) - Depression - ADHD -
What Can Parents Do?
I am not going to re-invent the wheel in this section. Experts in this field have created plenty of tips for parents and caregivers when it comes to addressing the issue of screen time. Below are a few resources that stood out to me as reasonable, realistically actionable, and allowed for collaboration between parents and children.
I also chose these resources, as they focused on looking at the positives of promoting a healthy lifestyle and how to set an example for your children; as opposed to focusing on the negatives of screen time and how to control it.
The Child Mind Institute suggests focusing on your child’s wellness first, before focusing on limiting screen-time. By using a “developmental checklist” to consider whether their child is engaged in activities important for healthy development, parents can then judge whether or not screen time is negatively impacting their child’s health.
Sources:
The Washington Post interviewed Emily Weinstein, executive director of Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving to get tips for parents on how to address screen time collaboratively with their teens, (though these steps would also be applicable for older children as well).
Learn More:
The American Association of Pediatrics has an (ironically) online tool for developing a family media plan. This allows families to work through their priorities and come to a family agreement about screen and media use.
Learn More:
Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental Research, 164, 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015