A recent Canadian study has confirmed the link between the time spent in front of the television, a tablet, the computer or a telephone and potential behavioral problems in children under 12 years old. But, this association would be “weak”.
- In France, 43% of children aged 0 to 2 use the Internet.
- According to an Ipsos survey, 26% of babies watch short videos, 24% TV series and 22% movies.
In a column published in the Worldin December, a hundred French deputies estimated that “the overexposure of children to screens could be the evil of the century”. They specified that the screens were “Obstacles to the acquisition of language, to the memorization of knowledge. They also have a harmful influence on sleep, food, or even the management of emotions.” Clearly, laptops, computers, televisions and tablets have an impact on the intellectual development of children.
But “Is there a correlation between exposure to screens and internalizing (depression, anxiety) and externalizing (aggression, inattention, hyperactivity) behavioral problems in children?” This is the question that Canadian researchers have asked themselves. To answer this, they made a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry March 16.
A “weak” link between exposure to screens and behavioral problems
For the purposes of the work, the scientists examined 595 searches. Among them, they selected 87 studies, which involved 159,425 children under the age of 12. The included research, which was observational or experimental, measured screen time and behavioral problems in children.
According to the study, more screen time was weakly associated with behavioral problems. “Results vary depending on demographic (eg, gender) and methodological (eg, informant and measurement method) factors,” the authors said.
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