Studies have shown that children who were given digital devices when they had tantrums failed to learn to regulate their emotions.

According to the study, if parents regularly use digital devices to soothe their children, the child may have trouble regulating their emotions, which could lead to anger management problems later in life.

Researchers say children learn a lot about self-regulation – their emotional, mental and behavioral responses to certain situations – during the first few years of life, and this happens mainly through their relationships with their parents.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common to give children digital devices that allow them to control their reactions to emotions, especially if they are negative.

However, researchers suggest that if people knew that digital devices were not suitable for dealing with tantrums, this could benefit children’s mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Veronika Konok, first author of the study and a researcher at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, said: “Tantrums cannot be cured with digital devices.

“Children need to learn to deal with negative emotions on their own.

“They need help from their parents during the learning process, not from a digital device.”

She added: ‘What we show here is that if parents regularly offer a child a digital device to calm them down or stop a tantrum, the child will not learn to regulate their emotions.

“This leads to more serious problems with emotion regulation, particularly anger management, later in life.”

Senior author Professor Caroline Fitzpatrick, a researcher at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada, added: “We often see parents using tablets or smartphones to distract their child when they are upset.

“Children are fascinated by digital content, so this is an easy way to stop tantrums and is very effective in the short term.

“If people become more aware of digital devices as inappropriate tools for treating tantrums, children’s mental health and well-being will benefit.”

In 2020, researchers conducted an assessment and a follow-up study a year later.

Over 300 parents of children aged two to five completed a questionnaire assessing how children and parents use media.

According to the findings published in The boundaries of child and adolescent psychiatrywhen parents used digital emotion regulation more often, children showed poorer ability to cope with anger and frustration a year later.