Children Given Digital Devices to Induce Tantrums ‘Failed to Learn Emotion Regulation’

New research suggests that simply handing a child a mobile phone or tablet when they throw a tantrum can negatively impact their ability to cope with their emotions.

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

Scientists say children learn a lot about self-regulation — their emotional, mental and behavioral responses to specific situations — in the first few years of their lives, and it happens largely through their relationships with their parents.

In recent years, it has become increasingly popular to give children digital devices so that they can control their reactions to emotions, especially negative ones.

However, researchers suggest that if people knew that digital devices were not an appropriate tool for dealing with tantrums, it could have a positive impact on children’s mental health and well-being.

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 how to deal with their negative emotions on their own.

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

She added: “What we are showing 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, specifically anger management problems, later in life.”

Senior author Professor Caroline Fitzpatrick, a researcher at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada, added: “We often see parents using tablets and 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 in the short term it is very effective.”

She added: “If people’s awareness of digital devices not being suitable tools for treating tantrums is raised, it will have a positive impact on children’s mental health and well-being.”

But the researchers suspect that in the long run this strategy may not yield much benefit.

In 2020, an evaluation and follow-up examination was conducted one year later.

More than 300 parents of children aged two to five completed a questionnaire assessing media use by children and parents.

The results showed that children whose parents used digital emotion regulation more often had poorer anger and frustration management skills a year later.

Children who were given devices more often when experiencing negative emotions also showed a reduced ability to choose a conscious response over an automatic response.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, also found that poorer anger management skills at the start meant children were more likely to be given digital devices as a coping tool.

“It is not surprising that parents are more likely to use digital emotion regulation if their child has difficulty regulating emotions, but our results suggest that this strategy may lead to an escalation of an existing problem,” Dr. Konok said.

The researchers suggest that health experts could provide information on how parents can help their children cope with emotions without giving them tablets or smartphones.