Family Stress During Pandemic Associated With Problematic Media Use by Kids

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children and their parents attended school and work virtually via computers. Screen-based media became increasingly central for child schooling, supervision, recreation, and socialization, raising questions about the impact of increased digital media use. A new study, “Problematic Child Media Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” in the September 2022 Pediatrics (published online Aug. 2) looked at media use during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that family stressors were associated with problematic media use by children and teenagers. Researchers studied a nationally representative sample of 1,000 U.S. parents with at least one child, ages 6-17, from Oct. 22 – Nov. 2, 2020, and found that around a third of children were engaging in media use classified as problematic, meaning addictive media use leading to social, behavioral, or academic problems. The survey asked about many potential family stressors, factors, including parental depression, anxiety and self-care, defined as sleep, exercise and eating. They also asked about child schooling, employment and virtual or hybrid working and schooling and found a connection between parents who were experiencing more psychological distress and children with notably higher problematic media use. Among young children, ages 6-10, 32.6% were reportedly engaging in problematic media use, compared to 38.8% of teenagers, ages 11-17. Problematic use was greater when parents were employed full time, working from home, had low levels or formal educational attainment, and were experiencing more psychological distress. Researchers concluded that problematic media use among children was higher when parents were under more stress, and was not associated with family media rules, but that more research is needed.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.