, a documentary show. Of the families asked to watch, some parents were assigned to watch the show with their child and talk about the episodes as much as possible, whereas others were told to watch together andto talk about it, or not to watch the episodes with their child at all. Rasmussen and his collaborators found that kids assigned to watchwith parents who talked about it with them were more likely to exhibit empathy and to score higher on tests of self-efficacy and emotion recognition.
To test this hypothesis, Radesky is collecting data from preschoolers three times over the course of six months, including their self-regulation deficits, how they use media, and family demographics. Her team can then create models of how children’s self-regulation and media use change over time to better understand how one might affect the other. “It’s not evidence of causality, but it’s stronger evidence than one-time correlation,” says Radesky.
More exhaustive study design means more time, effort, and funding costs from researchers. Rasmussen estimates that their TV study cost about $10,000, and the app study cost $35,000. And it requires time and buy-in from families, too; for Rasmussen’s studies, parents had to commit to two weeks of TV watching or app engagement, plus follow-up meetings on campus for additional testing.
Until more large-scale projects like Rasmussen’s and Radesky’s are completed, we’re left mostly with correlational data to guide our decisions about screen time. No matter what, kids are going to spend time on their phones and tablets—and parents of the youngest users want guidance. Radesky wants to focus on solutions that can help families make the right decisions for themselves. “You can’t solve a problem just by taking the kid’s phone away,” says Radesky.
Rasmussen also says he gets questions from concerned parents asking what they should do with their kids in light of the uncertainty about screen time’s causal effects. Parents can set boundaries on use but can also teach their kids about how to set their own boundaries around screen time and what they choose to do on their devices. “A parent’s job is to give our kids tools to deal with the media content themselves,” he says. “Protecting our kids is good, but empowering them is great.
▪Comfort will Dull you. ▪Pain will Toughen you. ▪Purpose will Enliven you. ▪Challenge will Sharpen you. ▪Real Meaning will Satisfy you. ▪Overthinking will paralyze you. ▪Responsibility will Invigorate you. ▪Over Indulgence will Enervate you.