Screen Time, Outdoor Play, and Sleep Routines in Early Childhood: Longitudinal Associations with Parenting Stress during Toddler to Preschool Years.
Amrik S Khalsa, Rebecca Andridge, Sarah A Keim and 2 others
PMID 39306782WHAT IT FOUND
Higher parenting stress at 18 months had small links to more background TV and fewer TV-time rules at age 3.
It did not link to device-use hours, outdoor play, or other sleep routines.
Key findings
01Higher parenting stress at 18 months was linked to more TV on with no one watching at 36 months (odds ratio 1.26).
02Higher parenting stress at 18 months was linked to lower odds of TV-time rules (odds ratio 0.75) and lower odds of a regular wake time (odds ratio 0.77).
03Parenting stress was not associated with hours of electronic device use, outdoor play activity, or other sleep routines.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
All behavioral measures came from caregiver self-report, so responses may be biased. The study used adapted questions rather than one validated screen-time measure. Most caregivers were mothers, so stress from other caregivers may not be captured. Parenting stress was measured at only one time point. The third visit was partly remote because of the pandemic, which changed data collection conditions. It is an observational analysis, so it cannot prove that parenting stress caused the child behaviors. Associations were small and several outcomes showed no association.
Declared interests
The authors reported no financial or competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that reducing parenting stress will improve a child's screen time or sleep. This was an observational study, no intervention was tested, and the associations were small.