Study links preschool screen time to behavioural problems

Preschoolers engaging in too much screen time are more likely to exhibit behavioural problems.

Ross Neitz - 27 May 2020

A University of Alberta study published in the journal PLOS One suggests that preschoolers who engage in two hours or more of screen time per day are five times more likely than those who watch less than 30 minutes to exhibit clinically significant behavioural problems such as inattention, acting out, hyperactivity and being oppositional.

"Children exposed to more screen time, at either age three or five years, showed significantly greater behavioural and attention problems at age five," says the study's lead author Sukhpreet Tamana, a post-doctoral fellow in pediatrics. The study found the children were also over seven times more likely to meet the criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"Our data suggest that between zero and 30 minutes a day is the optimal amount of screen time," says Piush Mandhane, MD/PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics and member of the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI), who led the study.

The team's ongoing data collection is funded in part by the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation and supporters of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women through WCHRI.

The research used data from the CHILD Cohort Study, a national survey collecting information from nearly 3,500 children and their families from pregnancy to adolescence.