Ask any parent with young children about their top concerns and chances are screen time ranks high on the list. Whether its the amount of time their children are spending on social media or playing video games, there is a prevailing question around how much is too much. But what if the answer lies inside their brains rather than the devices themselves?
As recently reported in NPR, antidopamine parenting may hold the answer to all of your parenting conundrums, or at least those associated with screens and sweets. The strategy, as described by Michaeleen Doucleff, Ph.D., a correspondent for NPRs Science Desk, is designed to counteract the negative impact of dopamine, which can influence our behaviors.
What is dopamine?
Dopamine, also known as the feel-good hormone, is a neurotransmitter that acts as part of your brains reward system. Whereas dopamine was previously thought to provide us with pleasure, research has found that the chemical itself doesnt make you happy, but rather it generates another strong emotion: desire.
Simply put, dopamine makes you want things, University of Montreal neuroscientist Anne-Noël Samaha told NPR, adding that dopamine tells your brain to pay close attention to whatever triggered the surge in neurotransmitters. Moreover, it doesnt matter whether you (or your child) actually find the activity thats contributing to the increase in dopamine pleasurable or not.
If you talk to people who spend a lot of time shopping online or, going through social media, they dont necessarily feel good after doing it, Samaha said. In fact, theres a lot of evidence that its quite the opposite, that you end up feeling worse after than before.
How to implement antidopamine parenting
For starters, experts encourage parents to remember theyre combating chemicals, not their children.
As screen time consultant Emily Cherkin told NPR, So I tell parents, Its not you versus your child, but rather its you versus a hijacked neural pathway. Its the dopamine youre fighting. And thats not a fair fight.
To help reduce conflict in your household, experts recommend the following strategies:
1. Reset before moving on. Much like it takes time for your car to go from zero to 60 mph, itll take your childs brain a little while to come down from the dopamine high. Sure, they may be unhappy at the outset, but after two to five minutes their mood will stabilize. The key, experts say, is to put the device or sweet out of sight so that your child isnt triggered again.
2. Find activities that make your child actually feel good. Searching for an outlet that will give your child an appropriate boost of dopamine will take some trial and error, but its worth it. To do that, youll want to pay close attention to the activities that make your child feel better after doing them and aim to incorporate more of those into your daily routine.
3. Regulate device usage (and location). Out of sight, out of mind can work for managing screen time as well. Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist at Stanford University and author of Dopamine Nation, recommends microenvironments, or one room in the house where children can use devices. A digital detox, wherein everyone in the family takes time away from phones and tablets, can also be helpful.
4. Substitute toxic habits with healthier habits. It may not be possible for your child to do away with technology altogether, but perhaps you can find more purposeful activities for them to do, such as swapping violent video games with more educational ones or replacing watching cartoons with a more hands-on hobby, such as puzzling or going for a walk.
