{"id":22024,"date":"2026-07-14T11:26:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=22024"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:29:32","slug":"is-giving-a-phone-to-calm-a-child-harmful-science-s-new-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/is-giving-a-phone-to-calm-a-child-harmful-science-s-new-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Is giving a phone to calm a child harmful? Science&#8217;s new answer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"2\"><span class=\"\">Handing a phone or tablet to a crying or throwing-a-tantrum toddler to calm them down is a familiar tactic for almost every parent.<\/span><span class=\"\"> However,<\/span><span class=\"\"> according to a new study from The Ohio State University,<\/span><span class=\"\"> the impact of this practice on a child&#8217;s development is not clear-cut and largely depends on the child and the family itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span class=\"\">The paper,<\/span><span class=\"\"> published in the scientific Journal of Communication,<\/span><span class=\"\"> examined how frequent screen use affects a child&#8217;s fundamental skills,<\/span><span class=\"\"> such as attention span,<\/span><span class=\"\"> emotional regulation,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and impulse control.<\/span><span class=\"\"> It is these qualities that determine a child&#8217;s future academic success,<\/span><span class=\"\"> mental health,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and social relationships.<\/span><span class=\"\"> For this purpose,<\/span><span class=\"\"> the researchers analyzed multi-year development data of children aged 2.<\/span><span class=\"\">5 to 7.<\/span><span class=\"\">5 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span class=\"\">It turned out that a vicious cycle of sorts is created in most families.<\/span><span class=\"\"> The more fussy and difficult to calm a child is,<\/span><span class=\"\"> the more often the parent gives them a phone.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Excessive screen use,<\/span><span class=\"\"> in turn,<\/span><span class=\"\"> prevents the child from learning to manage their emotions independently.<\/span><span class=\"\"> As a result,<\/span><span class=\"\"> the child becomes even more fussy,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and the parent is forced to turn to the screen again.<\/span><span class=\"\"> However,<\/span><span class=\"\"> specialists note that breaking out of this cycle is possible.<\/span><span class=\"\"> If we teach a child to cope with emotions through other ways (for example,<\/span><span class=\"\"> by playing outdoors or redirecting their attention),<\/span><span class=\"\"> the dependence on the phone will naturally decrease.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span class=\"\">The study revealed another important detail:<\/span><span class=\"\"> in families where parents showed signs of depression,<\/span><span class=\"\"> giving a phone to the child became almost the only way to cope with stress.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Scientists emphasize that instead of blaming parents,<\/span><span class=\"\"> society and the healthcare system should focus on supporting their mental health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1093\/joc\/jqag009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Journal of Communication<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Handing a phone or tablet to a crying or throwing-a-tantrum toddler to calm them down is a familiar tactic for almost every parent. However, according to a new study from The Ohio State University, the impact of this practice on a child&#8217;s development is not clear-cut and largely depends on the child and the family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1631,1594,1665,1587,1657],"tags":[1808],"class_list":["post-22024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-neurology","category-news","category-public-health","category-research","category-science","tag-bavshvebi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22028,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22024\/revisions\/22028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}