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Parenting research for preschool & early school
Screen habits, praise, and the parent–child relationship before and just after school starts. Every episode below was studied in this age band — the exact ages are printed on each one, because a finding only speaks for the children it was measured in.
Screen Use at Age 4–6 Hit the Parent-Child Relationship Hardest
Studied ages: Children aged 4–6 · Harverson et al., Computers in Human Behavior, 2025
Across 51 studies of 83,862 children aged 4–6, more screen use was linked to worse wellbeing — and the largest link of all was with the quality of the parent–child relationship. Watching and playing together softened the pattern.
Try tonight: Convert some solo screen time into together time: co-watch, co-play, and talk about what is on the screen while it is on.
Too Much ‘Good Effort’ Praise Backfires Too
Studied ages: Ages 4–6, plus fifth-graders in the classic experiments · Xu et al., Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2024 (+ Mueller & Dweck, 1998)
Two papers, one recipe: children persisted most when effort praise only slightly outweighed person praise — and after one line of “you're so smart” praise, most children in the classic experiment picked the easy task and did worse after failure.
Try tonight: Praise the process a little more than the person: mostly specific effort-and-strategy praise, a light touch of person praise, and never a flood of either.
Your Phone in Front of Your Baby: What 14,900 Families Showed
Studied ages: Children from birth to 4.9 years · Toledo-Vargas et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2025
Across 21 studies and 14,900 families, parents using technology in their young child's presence was linked to slightly lower cognitive performance, weaker attachment, more behaviour problems and higher child screen time. Effects were small but consistent.
Try tonight: Create phone-down windows in the day — floor play, feeding and bath time — with the phone in another room, not just face-down.
Before you apply it
Which ages did these studies actually cover?
The ages differ by paper: Episode 11 — Children aged 4–6; Episode 8 — Ages 4–6, plus fifth-graders in the classic experiments; Episode 4 — Children from birth to 4.9 years. Each episode page states its study's ages in full.
Can I apply these findings to a different age?
Carefully, if at all. Every finding on this page was measured in the ages listed — the episode pages say plainly where a result does and doesn't reach, and we don't stretch a toddler result into a teen claim.