SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) - Of all the pitfalls parents have to navigate while raising kids, screen time is emerging as one of the top points of contention -- especially when it comes to tweens. Now, parents are getting some added tools before it becomes a problem thanks to a key study out of UCSF Health.
The study, led by Dr. Jason Nagata, an adolescent medicine specialist at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, looked at screen use among tweens and found some practical ways for parents to give their kids the best foot forward growing up.
"We focused on 12 to 13-year-olds, so really early adolescents. But this is actually a really important period in development," Dr. Nagata told KCBS Radio's Bret Burkhart on this week's episode of "As Prescribed." "These are children who are trying to become more independent, and often this is the age range when people start to have social media profiles, they may be getting smartphones for the first time, and usually screen time really ramps up in these early teenage years."
For the study, published today in Pediatric Research, children ages 12-13 years reported how often they used screens for gaming, texting, social media, video chatting, watching videos or movies, and browsing the internet, and completed questionnaires to gauge problematic use. Screen use for school was excluded.
"One of the things that we looked at was actually problematic screen use.
So this is when screen use becomes so excessive that it starts to impact one's quality of life or impact like schoolwork or daily functioning in ways that can mirror an addiction. So if people are trying to cut down but aren't able to, if they have symptoms of withdrawal or dependence, these are aspects of problematic screen use," said Dr. Nagata.
Researchers also asked parents about their own use of screens in front of their kids, how they monitored and restricted their kids' screen use, and whether they used screen time to reward or punish behavior. They also asked about kids' use of screens in their bedrooms, and the family's use of screens at mealtimes.
The study found that one of the biggest predictors of tween screen use was actually their parents' screen behavior.
"So even if parents think that their teenagers or early adolescents are not watching -- actually one of the biggest predictors of early adolescent screen use is their parents' screen use," said said Dr. Nagata. "So parents should definitely practice what they preach. And if you're making rules about screens in the household, it's really important that parents follow them too."
That means implementing screen-free times and sticking to them -- especially at bedtime.
"Right before bedtime is an important one because we do know that one of the impact of screens on health is that it can displace sleep. So oftentimes if kids are texting or chatting or on social media right before bedtime, that delays their time for going to bed. And it means that they're getting even less sleep than they already would," said Dr. Nagata. "So one of the most effective strategies we found was actually trying to limit screen use specifically in the hour before bedtime."
An easy way to limit screens before bedtime is keeping the device out of the room all together.
"So not even just turning it off, but actually having it outside of child's bedroom, that was effective at improving sleep," said Dr. Nagata. "But if the phone is going to be in the bedroom, actually turning it completely off was more effective in terms of impacting sleep less than even putting it on silent or vibrate."
Having screen-free mealtimes was also associated with overall less problematic use.
"One of the advantages of screen-free mealtimes is that we do know that people, adolescents and adults, actually tend to overeat when they're distracted in front of screens," said Dr. Nagata. "Also, if you're having a screen-free family meal, it could really promote having conversations and getting to hear updates from your kids about how their day went."
It's also important that parents struggling to limit screen time give themselves grace.
"There really isn't a one-size-fits-all solution," said Dr. Nagata.
Listen to this week's "As Prescribed" to learn more. You can also listen to last week's episode to hear how family and neighborhood – not schools – can prevent teens from having sex early, here .
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
"As Prescribed" is sponsored by UCSF.
Most Popular
Comments / 0