Family stress during pandemic linked to problematic media use among kids
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Family stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with problematic media use by children and teenagers, according to a study published in Pediatrics.
Additionally, about a third of surveyed children were found to be engaging in media use classified as “problematic,” meaning addictive media use leading to social, behavioral or academic issues.
Such findings align with recent studies, which found that more screen time during COVID-19 pandemic has negative effects on pediatric mental health, and that adolescents’ screen time doubled during the pandemic.
Emily Kroshus, ScD, MPH, research assistant professor at the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, told Healio that the idea for the new study came from her own household.
“I'm a mom of three, and during COVID, I, along with pretty much every other parent in the country, was wrestling with how to look after myself, look after my kids and how to make decisions in the best interest of our family, given the available resources,” Kroshus said. “I was really curious about how families were managing the screen use, what changes they're making, what was driving those changes, and what the implications were for children.”
Kroshus and colleagues studied a sample of 1,000 U.S. parents with at least one child aged 6 to 17 years from Oct. 22 to Nov. 2, 2020, when “a lot of schools were either fully remote or in a hybrid modality,” she added.
They surveyed participants about many potential family stressors and factors including parental depression, anxiety and self-care, defined as sleep, exercise and eating. They also asked about child schooling, employment and virtual or hybrid working and schooling.
Ultimately, the researchers found a connection between parents who were experiencing more psychological distress and children with notably higher problematic media use.
Among young children aged 6 to 10, 32.6% were reportedly engaging in problematic media use, compared with 38.8% of teenagers aged 11 to 17 years. Problematic use was greater when parents were employed full time, working from home, had low levels or formal educational attainment and were experiencing more psychological distress.
Kroshus added that while she and her colleagues had anticipated a “loosening of rules for screen use” among families, “We saw that there was a little bit of loosening of rules, but largely, that wasn't what was explaining problematic media use,” Kroshus said. “What explained problematic media use was more reflective of how media use functions in the family environment. That really was more to do with the stressors that parents are experiencing, which, we can't say this for sure, because it was a cross-sectional study, but probably extends to how parents are interacting with their children about media use.”
Kroshus and her colleagues concluded that problematic media use among children was higher when parents were under more stress and was not associated with family media rules but that more research is needed.
“Different families have different stressors and resources,” Kroshus said. “Screen use and media use for families have a really valuable coping role. Any sort of messaging to parents that proposes they restrict media use or regulate it without considering how it functions for their family without considering stressors that families are facing or structural conditions and policies are outside of their control...I think anything that ignores that context is somewhat tone deaf and unfair to parents and ultimately not useful.”