Tantrums, toddlers and technology: Temperament, media emotion regulation, and problematic media use in early childhood
Open accessAbstract
Parents regularly use media to help regulate their child's difficult emotions, particularly for those with a more difficult temperament. However, no research has examined how this may be related to the development of problematic (or addictive-like) media use in early childhood. The purpose of the study was to examine associations between temperament, parental media emotion regulation, and problematic media use in young children, using both questionnaires and observational data. Participants included 269 toddlers (2-3 years old) and their parents, who completed several observational tasks and questionnaires. Analyses revealed that higher levels of media emotion regulation was associated with more problematic media use and more extreme emotions when media was removed in toddlers. Additionally, temperament (specifically negative affect and surgency) was related to problematic media and extreme emotions and was mediated by media emotion regulation. Parents should avoid using media as a primary way of regulating their children's emotions as this may be related to the development of problematic media strategies during infancy.
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The ubiquity of access to digital media allows it to become an easy distraction during times of emotional distress, providing emotional relief and subsequently reinforcing digital media engagement.
“The ubiquity of access to digital media allows it to become an easy distraction during times of emotional distress, providing emotional relief and subsequently reinforcing digital media engagement.19”
From Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report (2026) · cites this paper as [19]
The Media Emotion Regulation section describes parents using phones to soothe distressed infants and toddlers, and the Problematic Media Use section proposes that this may foster reliance on media for coping. The Discussion reports an association with concurrent problematic media use, but the paper does not establish that ubiquitous access causes emotional relief and reinforces engagement across digital-media users generally. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDesign features such as auto-play, infinite scrolling, and personalized algorithmic recommendations on social media platforms are digitally engineered to prolong device use and make disengagement more difficult, particularly for children.
“Design features, such as auto-play, infinite scrolling, and personalized algorithmic recommendations on social media platforms are digitally engineered to both prolong device use and make disengagement from devices more difficult,19 particularly for children, who may be developing their ability to control impulses.”
From Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report (2026) · cites this paper as [19]
The Problematic Media Use section discusses excessive use and children’s self-regulation, but not platform design features. Searches for auto-play, infinite scrolling, algorithmic recommendations, and engineered difficulty disengaging found no passage addressing the claim. Page numbers were not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Coyne, S. M., Shawcroft, J., Gale, M., Gentile, D. A., Etherington, J. T., Holmgren, H., & Stockdale, L.
- Affiliations
- Brigham Young University (US)
- Iowa State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Coyne, Sarah M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Computers in Human Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-07
- Volume
- 120
- Pages
- 106762
- ISSN
- 0747-5632 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8078852
- OpenAlex
- W3133784500
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 31.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- Locations
- Computers in Human Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- problematic media use, toddler temperament, negative affect, surgency, parental media use, early childhood, screen time, emotion regulation
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