Princess Kate has warned parents to put down their phones for the sake of their children as research shows emotional connections built in childhood benefit people into their 80s and 90s.
The Princess of Wales has written an essay with psychiatrist Professor Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, an 87-year project examining what drives mental and physical health.
In the article, they argue digital technology is eroding what the Harvard study identified as the most important key to happiness—human connection.
Why It Matters
Kate’s intervention forms part of her ongoing early years project, through which she tries to turn the focus onto the pre-school phase of a child’s life.
What To Know
“The best predictor of who would live a happy, healthy life wasn’t blood pressure,” Kate and Waldinger wrote. “It wasn’t cholesterol levels. It was the quality of their connections with other people.
“The people who were more connected to others stayed healthier and were happier throughout their lives. And it wasn’t simply about seeing more people each week. It was about having warmer, more meaningful connections. Quality trumped quantity in every measure that mattered.”
Scientists, they say, have found that emotional connections boosts physical as well as mental health because it helps regulate stress, which can otherwise impact the human body as well as the mind.
However, Kate and Waldinger warned that digital technology can damage the very human connections that the Harvard study showed were the key to health and happiness throughout life.
“We live increasingly lonelier lives,” they wrote, “which research shows is toxic to human health, and it’s our young people (aged 16 to 24) that report being the loneliest of all—the very generation that should be forming the relationships that will sustain them throughout life.
“While new technology has many benefits, we must also acknowledge that it plays a complex and often troubling role in this epidemic of disconnection. While digital devices promise to keep us connected, they frequently do the opposite.”
“For parents,” they continued, “it means understanding that the foundations for this are laid at a remarkably young age—in fact, before we are even born and in the earliest weeks and months of our lives when our brains undergo the fastest and most profound period of brain development.
“It means modeling these behaviors for our babies and children and teaching them skills they will need to navigate a world filled with technological distractions.
“It means helping them understand that true connection requires presence, that relationships need tending, and that the quality of their connections will shape not just their happiness but their health for decades to come.”
What People Are Saying
The essay comes days after Prince William told Eugene Levy on the actor’s Apple TV show The Relutctant Traveler: “We sit and chat, none of the children have phones.” He said it was something the couple “are really strict about.”
Princess Kate and Professor Robert Waldinger wrote: “The evidence is clear: if you could invest in just one thing to help you and your family thrive, invest in the relationships you have with each other.”
What Happens Next
Princess Kate has made her early years project, through the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, her life’s work and fans can therefore expect to see more on this subject from her in the future.