Or to be precise: children who spent a lot of time on the tablet at age 3.5 were more likely to be angry and frustrated by the time they were 4.5. And remarkably, a cycle emerged: children who were more prone to anger and frustration at age 4.5 were even more likely to use the tablet at age 5.5. this suggests that tablet use at a young age can contribute to a process that is detrimental to the regulation of emotions.
We talked about this further with researcher Caroline Fitzpatrick from Sherbrooke University in Canada. She tells us about her results: “We found that children’s use of tablets at age 3.5 years was associated with increased expressions of anger and frustration at age 4.5 years. More specifically, every additional 73.2 minutes per day of tablet use by children led to a 22 percent increase in the anger-frustration dimension of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire.”
Practicing Emotional Skills
Fitzpatrick also offers explanations for this connection between tablet use and anger. “Early childhood is a sensitive period for the development of emotion regulation skills. Many parents report using tablets to keep children occupied. However, as a solitary activity, tablet use offers few opportunities for children to practice their whatsapp lead emotional skills. Parents also report using tablets to calm children down when they are experiencing strong emotions. This approach may backfire in the long run, as it can disrupt the development of children’s internal strategies to manage their emotions.
That angry and frustrated children then spent more time on the tablet when they were a year older, which in turn led to even more anger and frustration, was quite a surprising result.
No more patience
Still, it is striking that the researchers already assumed that anger and frustration lead to more rather than less យុទ្ធសាស្ត្រដើម្បីកំណត់ទីផ្សារពិសេសជាភាសាអង់គ្លេស៖ យុទ្ធសាស្ត្រសំខាន់ៗនៅក្នុងពិភពទីផ្សារ tablet use. Fitzpatrick explains to Scientias.nl: “Our results show that tablet use can undermine the development of emotional asb directory regulation in children. Over time, we also saw that children with poorer emotional skills spent more time on the tablet. This may indicate that children with poorer self-regulation skills increasingly rely on screens as a quick fix to manage strong emotions. It may also be that parents become less patient with the angry outbursts as children get older, and are therefore more likely to use tablets as a calming strategy.”
