Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Technology / 09.02.2017
Moderate Screen Time Didn’t Increase Behavioral Problems in Kids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson PhD
Professor of Psychology
Stetson University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The degree to which screen time influences youth across a variety of behavioral outcomes has been a source of debate and contention for decades. For many years the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended to parents that they allow older children no more than 2 hours of screen time per day. However, this number was never clearly based on good data. And in 2014 one study (Przybylski, 2014 in Pediatrics) suggested that ties between screen time and behavioral outcomes were very weak, and only seen for the most extreme screen users. So I was curious to see if these results would replicate for a large sample of US youth.
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