Parents face screen time reset as the school year begins

A study of 822 carers has found that stressed-out parents are quietly abandoning their household screen time rules, and researchers say the habits formed over summer could follow children straight into the classroom.

The research, from Florida International University's Center (FUI) for Children and Families, found that parenting stress predicts weaker screen time enforcement across families with children aged four to eight.

Lead author Enid Moreira, a psychology doctoral student at FIU, and senior author Shayl Griffith surveyed carers across the US to separate different types of parenting stress.

The study revealed that parents who were emotionally stressed had less ability to set rules about screen time limitations, while those who felt overwhelmed with their children's behaviour had the need to resort to screens to deal with problematic situations. The results of the study have been published in Family Relations.

According to specialists from the paediatric field, the previously well-known recommendation to limit screen time to two hours a day is out of date since it does not reflect the modern way of using technologies.

University of California’s Paediatrics department Jason Nagata states that the family's media strategy changes depending on the time of year, and the difference can be made between weekdays and weekends.

UTHealth Houston professor and psychologist Jeff Temple who wasn't involved in the FIU research, said the real risk appears when summer's looser structure doesn't shift back once term starts.

Child development researchers have linked excessive media use to weaker academic performance, poorer attention control and slower cognitive development, making the September reset more than a scheduling issue.

Rather than trying to enforce harsher rules, the FIU researchers encourage parents to make use of the "Family Media Plan" that is available for free at the American Academy of Paediatrics along with the "5 Cs of Media Use": Child, Content, Calm, Crowding Out and Communication.

The process involves assessing a kid's age and personality, the quality of content being consumed, the impact on emotion regulation, whether it crowds out activities or sleep, and family communication on media use.