Children learn a lot about self-regulation, or how to respond to specific situations, during their early years, which may give them the ability to act calmly rather than angrily in difficult situations. However, it has become common "in recent years" to give children digital devices when they experience mixed emotions. A team from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary found that doing so could have devastating long-term consequences.
In the study, the team asked 265 parents to fill out questionnaires about their children's behavior (who were, on average, 3.5 years old), and a follow-up survey was conducted after a year. The analysis revealed that the more inclined parents were to give phones or tablets to their children as a "soothing tool," the worse their children's anger and frustration management skills became after a year.
Dr. Veronika Konok, the study's lead author, stated: "Here we show that if parents regularly present a digital device to their children to calm them down or stop a tantrum, the child will not learn to regulate their emotions. This leads to more serious problems in emotion regulation later in life, especially in managing anger. Digital devices cannot cure tantrums; children must learn to manage their negative feelings themselves." It is recommended that parents train their children in difficult situations, help them recognize their emotions, and teach them how to deal with them.
