Report If parents want to successfully cut back children’s screen-time, they must first cut back themselves

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A new study “Mothers’ and fathers’ media parenting practices associated with young children’s screen-time” from University of Guelph and published in BMC Obesity says that children’s screen-time is directly related to their parents’ screen-time. And any efforts intended to reduce children’s screen-time should start at the root, with the parents’ screen-viewing habits.

The researchers hoped to better understand how media parenting practices affect children’s screen-viewing habits, which directly contribute to obesity. While other studies have explored how a parent’s media habits affect their children, past research has focused specifically on TV viewing habits of the mother. This recent study expands the scope, as it aimed to examine the use of more popular media devices today like the iPad, in addition to TV, and look at the effects of both the mother’s and father’s habits.

To reach these important findings, researchers looked into secondary data regarding 62 children, who fell between 18 months and 5 years of age, and their parents, which included 39 mothers and 25 fathers (64 parents total). To assess the children’s screen-viewing habits, the parent’s screen-viewing habits, and the correlation between the two, the parents were asked general questions like:

  • How they control their kids’ screen-time
  • When they allow their kids to engage in screen-time
  • Whether or not they engage in screen-time in front of their kids

The researchers came across a few significant findings. First, they found that children typically spend an hour and a half a day looking at screens during the week and a little over two hours a day looking at screens on the weekends. Parents, on the other hand, spend slightly more time viewing screens: they spend two hours per day looking at screens during the week and a little over two and a half hours a day on the weekends.

 
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