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Preschoolers Spending Too Much Time in Front of Screens, Study Says

by Amar Toor on November 2, 2010 at 01:30 PM

son and mom with computerLast month, a group of researchers in the U.K. discovered that school-age kids who spend more than two hours a day in front of a computer or television screen tend to display more serious behavioral problems than their less tech-addled counterparts. And, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the two-hour threshold even applies to preschoolers, as well. But how many tots actually adhere to the limit? According to one study, not that many.

In order to gauge the amount of time millennial preschoolers spend in front of a screen, researchers at the Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington examined data from the 'Early Childhood Longitudinal Study -- Birth Cohort' (ECLS-b), which observed 10,000 children from various socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds that were born in 2001. 'Screen time' was defined by the ECLS-b as any time spent watching TV or movies, and excluded time spent playing video games or sitting in front of a computer. And, because researchers limited the study to those kids who were five-years old or younger between 2001 and 2006, their definition obviously excluded time spent in front of a cell phone, as well.

Even within these antiquated parameters, however, the study's findings were pretty discouraging. Of the 8,950 preschool-aged children included in the sample, a full 66-percent spent more than two hours a day in front of a screen, with the average child spending 4.1 hours each weekday watching TV or movies. Preschoolers that were enrolled in home-based childcare had the highest daily exposure to screens (5.6 hours), while kids in center-based childcare facilities only registered 3.2 hours per day. Kids in federally sponsored programs like Head Start, meanwhile, were squarely in the middle at 4.2 hours per day.

It's important to note that this study didn't consider the effects of screen time on young children, but simply offered insight into the limits that parents place on their kids' daily exposure. "The biggest message from this study is that parents need to be aware of all the settings where their children are spending time," says lead researcher Dr. Pooja Tandon. "This study didn't look at outcomes for these children, but other studies have shown that increased screen time beyond one to two hours a day is associated with higher risks of various problems, so the fact that a national estimate shows that most children exceed that recommendation is concerning for all of those outcomes."

Tags: computer, kids, parenting, parents, Pediatrics, preschool, preschoolers, study, top, tv

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