Screen time as an index of family distress

The increase in children’s screen time over the last few decades has concerned parents, educators, and policymakers alike, due to its association with negative developmental outcomes. Interventions have focused on cautioning parents against coaching them how limit it. Such interventions are unlikely be effective if is driven less by parental preference than necessity, supplementing insufficient adult caretaker availability. We show that during COVID crisis, United States increased dramatically as a direct result of sudden decrease This indicates lower rates prior pandemic were not (merely) function well-informed parenting but well-resourced parenting. It also supports claims associations between outcomes epiphenomenal their joint dependence family well being.