Raised With Screens : A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Child and Parent Technology Use on Children's Behavior and Development

Abstract

Over the years, society has seen a rapid increase in technological advancement. People are making new inventions like never before and oftentimes these products are then made available to the general public like never before. With this increase in advanced technology and accessibility to it, it is no surprise that this has come with many challenges. From regulating laws on topics such as personal tech privacy to being exposed to constant updates from around the world, technology has changed every aspect of human life and human development is no exception. Not only is this a struggle for the larger society and lawmakers, but also parents. Parents have had to navigate how and when to introduce technology to children with little previous information and they do not always receive proper guidance. Over the past few years, there has been a dramatic increase in youth behavioral and mental health concerns. According to a study done by Tkacz & Brady (2021), there has been a 34.6% increase in children’s mental health issues from 2012-2018 alone. Prevalence of students with diagnoses such as eating disorders, anxiety, and depression are at a reported all time high. And it is not just parents seeing this change, it is others, like teachers, who interact with children on a daily basis. While technology has been used beneficially in ways like increasing empathy and communication in kids, it has been noticed that it has led to an alarming change in behaviors, such as increased depressive symptoms and more violent, atypical behaviors (Ventouris et al., 2021). In a study done by Lebrun-Harris et al. (2022), researchers found that from 2019 to 2020 alone, conduct disorder and behavioral problems increased by 21% and depression and anxiety have been steadily more diagnosed in kids from 2016 to 2020, with a 29% increase for anxiety and a 27% increase for depression. This begs the question: has the exposure to advanced and accessible technology had something to do with these changes seen in our youth, even at a young age? This meta-analysis seeks to examine the correlation between not only child screen use and different behavioral and developmental outcomes, but also parental tech use a possible correlation between their child’s behavioral and developmental patterns.