Poster #107 - Parents’ Screen Time Limits and Rules During Covid-19 Remote Schooling

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Excessive screen time use in young children is well-documented, (e.g., Rideout & Robb, 2020) as are accompanying sequelae (e.g., Lund et al., 2021; Madigan et al., 2020; Stiglic & Viner, 2019). Accordingly, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents develop personalized screen management plans to foster healthy habits (AAP Council on Communications and Media, 2016). Past research has found that when parents set clear limits about screen time, children use screens less (e.g., Gentile et al., 2012, 2014; He et al., 2010; Ramirez et al., 2011), but has also found that different types of rules are easier to enforce than others (e.g., Hiniker et al., 2016).
The existing literature on parents limiting and managing screen time mostly focuses on older forms of media like television and video gaming (e.g., Carlson et al., 2010; Coyne et al., 2017; Davies & Gentile, 2012; Nathanson, 1999; Padilla-Walker, 2006; Vandewater et al., 2005). Mobile media presents unique challenges for screen time management, and this needs further study. Further, too few studies have examined the extent to which parents enforce their own limits and rules. Finally, to our knowledge, no empirical studies have specifically described parents’ screen time limits and rules during the screen-heavy remote schooling of the pandemic. These are the areas that this study aimed to address, as a step towards building theory and guiding best screen time management practices in the mobile media era.
Participants were 193 caregivers of children who were, in fall 2020, remote learning at least part time in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in grades from kindergarten to 5th grade. Surveying parents with Amazon’s MTurk, we asked about children’s screen time, parents’ limits and rules about screens, and enforcement of these, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We present the types of rules parents reported and their relation to screen time and school functioning.
Results were consistent with the hypothesis that screen time management represents a central, major challenge for many parents. Parents reported that children spent over seven hours per day on screens, with fewer parents limiting screen time than pre-pandemic. Just over half of the parents reported limiting their children’s screen time, and even among these parents who did have screen time limits, non-school limits averaged over two hours per day and were often not enforced. Parents described a wide range of screen time rules that likely vary in effectiveness, and enforcement was again problematic. Limits and rules were related to less screen time and more school assignments completed.
Our results are consistent with previous work showing that children are using a great deal of screen time and extends this work by showing that this pattern is despite parents reporting limits and rules designed to decrease the use. Our data suggest that this is in part a function of the rules not being effective, and in part because the rules are not well-enforced by parents. Overall, it is clear that parents need more guidance and support on this front.

Authors

• Trina Harmon, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  Presenting Author

• David H Arnold, University of Massachusetts Amherst