High Screen Time Linked to Learning and Wellbeing Challenges in Children, Study Finds | KiddyNews

A global review involving more than 2.8 million children across 64 countries has found that higher screen exposure is associated with less favourable outcomes in areas including academic achievement, language development and children’s emotional wellbeing.

Published in JAMA Pediatrics, the study is one of the largest reviews of research on children’s screen use. Researchers examined findings from previous large-scale reviews covering devices and activities including smartphones, television, gaming, social media and video calls.

Links To Learning and Language Development

The researchers found that children with higher levels of screen exposure tended to have lower overall academic achievement and poorer language development.

However, screen use was not clearly associated with achievement in individual subjects such as mathematics, reading and science. The researchers noted that these areas were among the least studied, meaning the findings may partly reflect limited evidence.

The review also found that the relationship between screen exposure and developmental outcomes was similar in magnitude to, or larger than, associations reported for established factors such as socioeconomic status, parenting behaviour and premature birth.

The researchers stressed that screen use should be viewed as one potentially modifiable factor associated with children’s wellbeing, rather than as the sole explanation for developmental or mental health difficulties.

Emotional and Behavioural Concerns

Higher screen exposure was also associated with several mental health and behavioural outcomes.

These included emotional and peer-related problems, internalising behaviours such as symptoms of depression and anxiety, and externalising behaviours such as aggression and symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The researchers concluded that greater exposure was associated with a range of less favourable developmental health outcomes, although the strength of these associations varied across different areas.

Experts Urge Caution

Experts commenting on the findings stressed that the study shows associations rather than proving that screen use directly causes poor mental health or academic difficulties.

Tatiana Íñiguez Berrozpe, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, said the association between screen use and poorer mental health and academic performance was small.

She cautioned against viewing screens as the main cause of emotional distress among teenagers, noting that screen use alone cannot explain why a young person may struggle emotionally or academically.

Esther van Sluijs, a professor of behavioural epidemiology at Loughborough University, described the study as high-quality but highlighted another limitation: the research could not reliably distinguish between different forms of screen use.

With insufficient data to examine activities such as social media use and gaming separately, she said the findings should be interpreted carefully in the context of how young people use screens today.

For parents and educators, the findings point to the importance of looking at children’s overall digital habits alongside their learning, language development and emotional wellbeing, rather than treating screen use as a single explanation for every challenge.

Source:

The Guardian – “High screen time can hurt children’s learning and language skills, study suggests”

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