How reducing screen time helps a Mother's mental health!

Photo by Cup of Couple: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-laptop-with-a-blank-screen-in-a-workspace-8472482/

Many people talk about cutting down screen time or even cutting it off completely for babies, toddlers and young children. But, today, I would like to talk about the impact of screen time on MOTHERS. 

There are several ways to look at what impact spending time on the phone or in front of a TV may have on a mother, but I would like to look at two angles, one which is the impact of mom’s screen time on her child, and the second is the impact on her own mental health. So let’s deep dive.

The impact of Mom’s screen time on a child:

A recent study by Psychiatrists in the Department of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki found that  “a higher amount of children’s screen time alone and a higher amount of their mothers’ screen time is particularly associated with weaker lexical skills and weaker development of children’s general language abilities. The social context in which children learn language shapes their language development [22], which in turn is linked to later academic achievements, for example [50,51].” [1]

What this means is that the time Mom spends on her phone is basically less time she is spending interacting with her children, at a time of their lives when they are only learning to speak and read through the social interaction mostly with their mother.

Think about it this way: if a child is spending time with their mother, and she is looking at her screen, this will have an impact on their “social” relationship, such as speaking to one another. Even if the child is not yet speaking, they require some form of communication by sounds, touch and play. This is how a child learns and develops, and taking away the mother’s attention will decrease the chances of this child’s learning and developing as they should.

To avoid this, I find that falling into a routine with time together as mother and child without a screen is the most efficient. This maybe planned, if your day follows a schedule, for example, the few hours between coming back from school/nursery until sleep time, where the mother completely puts aside screens and focuses only on playing with the child.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-pointing-on-laptop-screen-6407752/

The impact of Mom’s screen time on herself:

The second angel I wanted to look at was the impact of screen time on the mother’s mental health. There is some truth to the common belief that more time on a screen is less time outside and less time being physically active. But, I do believe that physical activity is another choice, active choice, to make as an adult. Some people replace screen time with reading or other recreational activities that are not necessarily outside, or physical. 

After following some research, it was astonishing to me that no one isolated mothers as a subject to study, most of the research I found was linked to adults and adolescents, mostly in China, USA and Canada. One of these studies found that there is a relationship between screen time in addition to low physical activity with anxiety, depression and quality of sleep [2]. And research also linked using the TV. mobile phone screen and laptops to depression, PTSD as well as ADHD [3].

Not assuming the role of science here. But speaking of personal experience, feeling the pressure to constantly be “online”, “connected” and “aware” of everything that is happening on social media did have a big impact on my relationships, as well as on my own mental health. I have found that when I set my phone aside, and switch the TV off, I can start to connect with my surroundings better. Decreasing my screen time did not just have an impact on my relationship with my family, but also with myself. During this time, I have found myself to be more relaxed, less anxious and overall happier and more grateful with life.

But, due to the fact that my job most of my hobbies include a screen if not two, what have worked for me was to follow a routine, and a schedule. Making sure I fully utilise my time when its “screen ok” time, meaning that I make sure to finish work during the allocated time, and finish writing this blog post during the allocated time. This way I don’t feel pressured by work or anything else during my “no screen” time.

Of course it helps if the rest of the day is organised. So, for example, allocating time for work while my child is at the nursery and planning meals ahead to save on dinner prep time, all of which saves the guesswork out of my day and I always find it easier to follow my on-off screen times when the rest of day is working according to plan.

There are so many helpful resources online to help you organize your screen time, whether your goal is to limit or eliminate it completely, here are a few that I really like:

https://www.bustle.com/life/ugly-phone-case-challenge-tiktok

References:

1. Mustonen, R., Torppa, R., & Stolt, S. (2022). Screen Time of Preschool-Aged Children and Their Mothers, and Children’s Language Development. Children, 9(10), 1577.

2. Zhang, Y., Li, Q., Hu, W., Zhan, N., Zou, J., Wang, J., & Geng, F. (2022). The relationships between screen time and mental health problems among Chinese adults. Journal of psychiatric research, 146, 279-285.

3. Yeqing Zhang, Qiaoqiao Li, Wenye Hu, Nalan Zhan, Jiaqi Zou, Jian Wang, Fulei Geng, The relationships between screen time and mental health problems among Chinese adults, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 146, 279-285.