Screen time as an index of family distress

Abstract

The increase in children's screen time over the last few decades has concerned parents, educators, and policymakers alike, due to its association with negative developmental outcomes. Interventions have focused on educating parents about the apparent dangers and coaching them on how to limit screen time. Such interventions are unlikely to be effective if screen time is driven less by parental preference than by parental necessity, supplementing insufficient adult caretaker availability. We show that during the COVID crisis, screen time increased dramatically as a direct result of sudden decrease in adult caretaker availability. This indicates that lower screen time rates prior to the pandemic were not (merely) a function of well-informed parenting but of well-resourced parenting. We discuss implications for policy, as well as for the ongoing scientific debate about whether screen time is actually problematic for development.