Is Cocomelon Making Our Kids Sad?

Research is being done to find a connection between screen time and

mental health problems, behavioral issues, academic struggles, and more.

Dana Lendall | January 29, 2023

Dealing with kids is exhausting ; we’ve all been Is Screen Time Harmful?
there. It’s hard to be a good mom when you
Our kids are the first generation to grow up
barely feel like a human. Yesterday I just
with access to technology their whole lives.
needed to make myself a coffee, so I sat my
Personally, I’m scared for what this access
kids in front of their tablet with a Cocomelon
means for their future. Will they be antisocial?
video on. After I was done and tried to turn
Unable to hold conversations in real life? Tied
the video off, my kids started crying and it
to screens for the rest of their lives? How are
took twenty minutes to calm them down. This
older kids acting now, after staring at screens
happens all the time, even though I do limit
since they were toddlers? A lot of research
their screen time. I’m worried that I’m allowing
has been done on teens, and there have been
them to get addicted to screens. When I was
connections made between screen time and
their age I was playing with baby dolls and
mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. A
reading books. I didn’t even want to watch TV.
new study has recently come out from the
And we don’t even know what effects screens
University of Colorado Boulder which focused
have on developing brains! After that incident, I
on nine and ten year old children, and the
needed to do some research to decide what
effects of screen time on their mental health,
to do with my kids. I didn’t find the most
academics, and social interaction. It’s important
reassuring answers, so I want to share them
we keep ourselves informed when it comes to
with you so that any moms going through
things we have little prior experience on;
similar situations can get some guidance.
especially when the results are not ideal.

How the Heck is This Tested?

This study used previously collected data. In
case you haven’t heard, there is a long-term
study called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive
Development (aka ABCD) Study. It is the
largest long-term study in the United States of
brain development and child health. More than
11,000 children ages nine and ten have joined
the study.

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(Learn more about the ABCD study here!)

During the ABCD study, both parents and
children filled out a form asking how much time
the child spent on screens, during the weekend
and on weekdays. The parents then filled out
the Child Behavior Checklist, which asked about
various psychiatric symptoms / behaviors their
child shows, and shared their child’s academic
performance, how much and how well their
child sleeps every night, and how many friends
of each gender the child has.
Then came the scientific part. The
researchers did some analysis (something
about Bivariate Pearson
correlations and linear regressions). For those
of you who don’t understand, no worries.
(If interested, the full study is available for free)
And The Results Were…
Not too good. Or maybe, good enough for you.
Screen time was significantly associated with
many problems. But it also depended on the
gender of the child and whether the screen time
was during the week or on the weekend. The
effect of screen time was small for all outcomes.
Too much screen time is associated with mental
and behavioral health problems, and poor academic
performance, but it doesn’t seem like it’s very
harmful at their age. The researchers do
recommend keeping an eye on these children to
see how / if things change.
So…What Does This Mean?
It depends. Technically, the results say that there
isn’t enough solid evidence to say that screen time
is harmful. Right after they said there seems to
be a connection (albeit small) to poor mental
health. They even said there could be worse
effects on mental health, but that the children are
too young to display some symptoms. But it was
also shown that screen time could be helpful for
making friends, so it’s hard to say.
https://www.english.com/blog/5-benefits-of-using-tablets-in-the-primary-classroom
I’m not going to sit here and tell you what you
should and shouldn’t do with your children. Being a
parent is a struggle; the beginning of this post was
all about making decisions you never thought you
would make! I just wanted to share this study
because I think it’s important to know the potential
effects screen time has on your children.
I want to know any danger my child could face
before they have to face it, to help as best as I
can. If there is a way to stop them from struggling
in the future, I want to take the steps. I don’t
want my kids to have to suffer with mental health
and behavioral problems, or struggle academically,
especially if it’s because of something as simple
as letting them spend too much time on screens.
I’ll leave you with this: If I have to make myself a
cup of coffee in the morning, I won’t feel guilty
about putting on a five minute long Cocomelon
video for my kids. But if I’m going to be sitting in
the car for five hours, I’m going to make sure I
pack some other form of entertainment for them.
 Works Cited

Paulich, Katie N., et al. "Screen time and early adolescent mental health, academic, and social

outcomes in 9- and 10- year old children: Utilizing the Adolescent Brain Cognitive

Development (ABCD) Study." . PLoS ONE, 2021, pp. 1-23.