A study titled Screen Time and Early Adolescent Mental Health, Academic and Social Outcomes in 9- and 10- Year Old Children: Utilizing the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ABCD Study shows that giving children screen time is not inherently bad for them.
The researchers added that children who have more screen time made more friends due to interactive online activities like social networking and video games. Moreover, they found no link between more screen time and anxiety or depression.
Researchers found that the average child had screen-based devices
The average Australian child has about 3.3 digital screen-based devices. Among these gadgets are home computers, gaming devices, tablets, TVs, smartphones, and laptops. These children spend about 3-4 hours daily on their devices.
More surveys have shown that almost all high-school-aged and two-thirds of elementary-aged children have access to screen-based gadgets. These surveys show that they spend a third of their day using their gadgets.
Despite researchers concluding that screen time did not increase anxiety and depression, their findings were not all favorable. For instance, they found that increased screen time correlated with poor academic performance, mental health, attentive mess, and sleep. However, they could not prove if screen time directly caused these outcomes.
Scene time had a minimal effect on children
According to Katie Paulich, a study author, both the negative and positive effects of screen time are small and clinically insignificant. She adds that some of the children they evaluated for the study performed better than others on these outcomes. However, she noted that screen time only led to 2% of the variance. She concluded that numerous factors could explain the negative and positive outcomes of screen time.
In addition, Paulich states that children who had minimal access to screen-based gadgets had a more challenging time in college as they didn’t know how to regulate their screen use. Therefore parents should avoid micromanaging their children.
The study also highlighted patterns in screen time when it came to children. Boys tended to use their gadgets more than girls on the weekdays and weekends. They also confirmed the effects of screen time on the health of children
Although they could not find a direct link between these outcomes and screen use and concluded they were not substantial, the team says that parents should not completely rule them out.
