November 17, 2025

expert reaction to a momentary assessment study of digital technology use and child well-being, as published in JAMA Pediatrics

A momentary assessment study published in JAMA Pediatrics looking at digital technology use and child well-being.

Dr Jun Zhao, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford, said:

“I am pleased to see this study, as it offers timely insights into where our attention should focus when seeking to mitigate potential harms associated with children’s screen use.

“Growing scientific evidence indicates that it is not simply the amount of time children spend on screens, but the nature and quality of their digital activities that matter the most for their development and well-being.

“While the study provides a valuable and realistic snapshot of two weeks in a child’s digital life, assessing children’s well-being and developments over such a short period is inherently challenging. This limitation may affect the generalisability of the correlations reported. Nonetheless, the study contributes an important indicator in a rapidly evolving field.

“Given the current global discussions on how best to measure children’s digital well-being (such as effort by the OECD; https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/measuring-what-matters-for-child-well-being-and-policies_e82fded1-en.html), this paper can offer useful input to the dialogue. Its findings can be strengthened further when combined with more comprehensive and robust measures of children’s well-being.”

Prof Chris Ferguson, Professor of Psychology, Stetson University, said:

“This paper, to use the authors’ own words, finds “minimal” relationships between screen use and various outcomes. Overall, the effect sizes of the study are so small as to conclude, as other studies have, that screen use is not associated with negative outcomes.  There are some significant limitations of the study such as the sample size was very small, the data self-report by parents, and the authors’ citation of past literature was, at times, biased which can indicate researcher biases.  Taken with a grain of salt, this study may help put parents at ease about their children’s screen use. It’s turning out it’s not quite as significant as we thought.”

* ‘Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Digital Technology Use and Child Well-Being’ by Jacquelyn Harverson et al. was published in JAMA Pediatrics at 16:00 UK time on Monday 17th November 2025.

DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.4709

Declared interests:

Prof Chris Ferguson: No declared interests

Dr Jun Zhao: I declare no conflicts of interests. While I provide advice to industrial companies, none of my research is or has been directly funded by industry.