The impact of interactive electronic devices: understanding the mechanisms of benefits and harms on young children’s development, behaviour and health outcomes using a multimethod approach.
In this project, we aim to determine how interactive electronic devices, such as tablets and smartphones, affect the health and development of children under 6 years old.
These devices are common in young children’s lives, but their impact is not well understood. Policymakers are seeking more information on this topic.
We involved public health consultants from the local council, parents and nursery teachers
to help us design this project. We learnt from these discussions who we should involve in the project, and what we should measure. We have regular group meetings throughout the project with these groups to gather ideas and opinions and share our findings with them.
We have three studies planned:
Study 1: Summarising existing research to understand what influences young children’s use of these devices.
Study 2: We will work with about 900 children and their parents. We will measure how long the children use their devices for and find out how device use impacts their intelligence, behaviour and health. We will study the children when they are 3-4 years old and again when they are 4-5 years old.
Study 3: We will use video cameras to observe children in their homes to understand how they use these devices. We will interview parents to help us further understand children’s behaviour and how children relate to others while using the devices.
We believe the results will benefit parents, educators, and policymakers.
The protocol and findings from Study 1 have been published and are being shared beyond academia. We will continue to publish findings until June 2028. A workshop will be held for the public, government, charities, and private sector representatives to discuss our findings. We will also share the results visually with parents and nursery teachers, and write policy briefs and distribute those to government organisations. Finally, we will write scientific papers and present the findings at conferences
Further Information
The study is led by Professor Liane Beretta de Azevedo, Professor in Public Health and Physical Activity at Sheffield Hallam University.
The project runs from 1 May 2024 to 31 June 2028.
