April 5, 2019

expert reaction to screen use and psychological well-being in adolescents

Research published in Psychological Science analyses suggested links between screen use and psychological well-being in adolescents.

 Dr Max Davie, Officer for Health Improvement for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said: 

“The controversy around screen use and adolescent well-being has always suffered from an excess of opinion relative to data, and this paper helps to correct this imbalance. The analysis is robust and suggests an overall ppopulation effect too small to warrant consideration as a public health problem. They also question the widely held belief that screens before bedtime are especially bad for mental health.

“However, none of this is intended to suggest that screen time cannot become excessive in individual cases, and we would still suggest that families follow our guidance published earlier this year. We continue, for now, to recommend that screens be avoided for one hour before bed since there are other reasons beside mental health for children to need a good nights’ sleep.”

‘Screens, Teens, and Psychological  Well-Being: Evidence From Three  Time-Use-Diary Studies’ by Amy Orben et al. is published in Psychological Science

Declared interests

None received.