Balancing Emotions and Electronics: A Pilot Intervention for Preschoolers

Conditions

• Screen Media Use

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

30 Months - 54 Months

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• Brief-RSU — BEHAVIORAL
  Brief-RSU Intervention: The Brief-RSU intervention consists of three, 60-minute sessions, outlined in Table 1. Brief-RSU aims to reduce RSU while increasing adaptive caregiver tools. Treatment targets include: 1) psychoeducation, 2) scheduling screen time to consistent times, 3) "planning ahead" for times when RSU is likely to occur, and 4) teaching the RULER approach\[9, 10\] to strengthen caregiver socialization of child emotion regulation (replacement behavior).

Study Details

This study is testing a brief, virtual therapy for caregivers of preschool children. The goal is to reduce use of screen time to regulate young children's emotions and boredom, i.e. "regulatory screen use" (RSU). We expect that RSU negatively impacts young children's ability to cope with emotions and boredom. Thus, reducing RSU should improve children's self-regulation. The intervention will include three, 60-minute group sessions with caregivers, and remote data collection at three time points (pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up).

Key Dates

Start date

Mar 1, 2026

Status verified

Jan 2026

Primary completion

Jun 30, 2026

Completion

Oct 26, 2026

Study Design

Enrollment

30 participants (estimated)

Allocation

NA

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: Intervention
  3-session, virtual group therapy

Primary Outcome Measure

Regulatory Screen Use (RSU) [ Time Frame: Baseline; 1-month follow up (i.e., 1 month after the last workshop). ]

Central Contacts

• Virginia Peisch, PhD
  617-355-0725
  [email protected]
• Anne B Arnett, PhD
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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