Screen Time & Externalizing Behaviors

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There are innumerable influences on a child’s development. Parents take particular notice when children start acting out and where these behaviors could have manifested. Children get overly anxious when they have too much screen time or upset when it is taken away. While we can’t say the taking away of screen time can cause all externalizing behavior problems, it does call for attention, if these behaviors continue in screen time viewing parental limiting or when children are acting out when they don’t get their way. If occurring in great abundance, these acting out behaviors are associated with higher risk for psychopathology in adulthood (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 1992).

A strong executive function can be used to support the regulation of externalizing behavior or the negative emotions that are associated with the behavior. Executive function is an aspect of self-regulation, which includes things such as working memory, attention shifting, and inhibitory control cognitive processes that are used when planning, problem-solving, and when engaging in goal-directed activity (Ogilvie, Stewart, Chan, & Shum, 2011). Parenting can be an important predictor of both executive function and externalizing behavior. Sensitive parenting can promote children’s capacity for self-regulation and this, in turn, reduces children’s externalizing behaviors (Eisenberg, Spinrad, Eggum, et al. 2010). Thus, emotional regulation is a learned instance, not an innate skill. Sensitive parenting is about assessing the situation, talking to your child in a non-authoritarian voice and asking them to think about why they are behaving this way. Talking about this issue rather than constant punishments or guilt-inducing feelings can go a longer way in developing a child’s emotional regulations capabilities.

Recent research from Sulik et al. (2015) shows that "the association between early parenting and later externalizing behavior was longitudinally mediated by executive function." This demonstrates that sensitive parenting reduces children’s externalizing behaviors by promoting children’s executive function. Executive function can be used by children to regulate their behavior and emotions with flexibility. It is also a resource that can be used to plan ahead. Sulik’s research is applicable to the increasing screen time amongst young children.

When the researchers examined the parent-child interactions, they looked at sensitivity, detachment, intrusiveness, stimulation, positive regard, negative regard, and animation when the parent interacted with the child. Parenting predicts the subsequent development of children’s self-regulation (Hammond et al., 2012). Sulik et al. (2015) were able to show that "early parenting had a direct effect on executive function assessed 1 and 2 years later and on externalizing behavior problems 1 year later." Parents may influence the development of their child’s subsequent external behavior by scaffolding and nurturing their executive function skills. Therefore, parenting interventions that target externalizing behaviors related to screen time would be most effective early in child development.

Acknowledgements:
The author would like to thank graduate student Sylvia Ryszewska for her assistance in preparing this article.

References:
Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (1992). A developmental and clinical model for the prevention of conduct disorder: The FAST Track Program. Development and Psychopathology, 4, 509. doi:10.1017/S0954579400004855

Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Eggum, N. M., Silva, K. M., Reiser, M., Hofer, C., & Michalik, N. (2010). Relations among maternal socialization, effortful control, and maladjustment in early childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 507–525. doi:10.1017/S0954579410000246

Hammond, S. I., M€uller, U., Carpendale, J. I., Bibok, M.B., & Liebermann-Finestone, D. P. (2012). The effects of parental scaffolding on preschoolers’ executive function. Developmental Psychology, 48, 271–281. doi:10.1037/a0025519

Ogilvie, J. M., Stewart, A. L., Chan, R. C., & Shum, D. H. (2011). Neuropsychological measures of executive function and antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis. Criminology, 49, 1063–1107. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2011.00252.x

Sulik, M. J., Blair, C., Mills-Koonce, R., Berry, D., Greenberg, M., & The Family Life Project Investigators (2015). Early Parenting and the Development of Externalizing Behavior Problems: Longitudinal Mediation through Children’s Executive Function. Child Development, 86, 5, 1588-1603. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12386