Screen time isn’t harmful to preschoolers academically, OSU researchers say

Screen time doesn’t appear to have overwhelmingly negative impacts on preschoolers’ development, new research from Ohio State University (OSU) has suggested, saying that for the majority of preschool children, screen time is not as bad as once perceived. 

Researchers looked at the amount of time children from low-income and minority homes spent in front of the TV, or using smartphones and tablets and subsequent gains (or deficits) in children’s language, literacy and math skills. 

Children who had very high levels of screen use – especially at night time – did have smaller gains in some social and behavioral skills, but this was not the majority of children.

“There’s been a lot of societal concern about the supposed harmful effects of screen time for young children, and it has really scared parents,” lead author Rebecca Dore said. 

“These results suggest that we should stop demonising screen media use and find better ways to support families and the education and development of children living in poverty.”

Researchers selected the low income and minority cohort because of previous studies which have shown that these children spend about twice as much time using screen media as their white and high-income peers.

“Lower-income and minority households often face a lot of obstacles that make it more difficult to limit screen time,” Ms Dore said. “These results can help reassure parents that it is not uniformly and overwhelmingly negative.”

“Some parents worry that every bit of media use is bad for their children, but we find that low to moderate levels of screen time don’t seem to matter,” she continued. “It really has to be high levels before we start to see some problems.”

The study was published recently in the journal Translational Issues in Psychological Science.