Long-Term Benefits to Setting Screen Use Rules

[Dr. Douglas Gentile] We had 1,400 families of third- through fifth-graders and we followed them across a school year. And we asked- we talked to the teachers, we talked to the school nurses, we talked to the children. We got a lot of data about these families. And if parents set limits on amount and content of screen media at the beginning of the school year, you saw some immediate effects that, yes, those kids were consuming less total screen time and they were also exposed to less violent media. When we followed these same children out to the end of the school year, those whose parents had set limits on amount and content at the beginning of the school year, they were getting better sleep, which in turn related to lower weight gains or lower risk for obesity. They were getting better grades in school. They were more prosocial in their behaviors as rated by teachers, which is kind of remarkable because the teachers don’t know what family rules for media are at home. But they can see the effects, you know, they can see the behaviors in the classroom. And they were less aggressive, again, as rated by teachers. Now, the two things that fascinate me about this are, first of all, those aren’t the same type of outcome variable. You’ve got physical health, school performance, and social wellness. Those three different types of outcome variables don’t usually co-occur. But this one simple thing of setting limits on amount and content of screen media influences all of them. So it is a protective factor that extends out wide, both in time and across a wide range of health and wellness indicators.