August 3, 2026

expert reaction to a cohort study looking at screen use and emotional, behavioural, and social development in children

A cohort study published in JAMA Network Open looks at screen use and emotional, behavioural and social development in children. 

Prof Pete Etchells, Professor of Psychology and Science Communication, said:

“This is a well-conducted study that reinforces a common finding in the research literature: namely, that apparent correlations between screen use and negative outcomes become much weaker (or disappear) when appropriate third factors are taken into account. This makes sense in the context of how screens sit within young peoples’ lives – i.e., that screen use doesn’t occur in a vacuum, but can impact, and is impact by, a variety of social and family-level factors. However, it’s worth noting that the data were collected pre-COVID, from 2009-2020, and the digital technologies in question have developed rapidly in the intervening time. That doesn’t mean that the results aren’t worth considering, but that we should interpret them in the context of the current screen time debate with caution.”

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Dr Victoria Whitington, Adjunct Associate Professor of Education in the School of Education at Adelaide University, Presiding Member of the Child Development Council SA, said:

“The use of a longitudinal design in research on screen use in children five, ten and then 15 years of age over ten years, with a focus on total difficulties and prosocial are strengths, as is the inclusion of covariates which produced contrasting findings from studies that were cross-sectional in design. The developmental change in screen use over the years from five to 15 is interesting, especially the role it has regarding social connection in the older years, as is the principal finding that apart from gaming, there are no apparent adverse effects on the two areas of focus apart from that of gaming in the older age group.

“Areas for future research include accessing data about what children are actually doing on the screen and who they are doing it with, or whether it is solo.

“Also, researching what children are doing when they are not on screens and whether screen time, in a sense, excludes the possibility to engage in other areas, for example, in-person verbal and physical interaction and time outdoors in highly sensory environments that engage children’s senses fully. As is commonly known through the work of Piaget and others, we are now much more aware of the centrality of the role of engaging the senses in children’s learning and development. While screens engage sight, hearing, touch (beyond the screen or keyboard), taste, smell and proprioceptive are not experienced.

“This research prompted thoughts of the Hart and Risley 1995 study of now almost thirty years ago, which was focused on the amount and quality of language in children’s environments, tracking children in their homes on a daily basis. I think, while incredibly expensive, this kind of research design would produce the quality of data needed to truly understand children’s screen use. It should also be noted that research on children and screens is in its infancy. There is much more to learn.”

Prof Adam Guastella, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health at Children’s Hospital Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney, said:

“This study is helpful because it shows longitudinally that there were no clear associations with reported screen time use of children and their mental health outcomes from the age of five up to the age of 15. It examined children from a wide range of sociodemographic backgrounds, which was a real strength of the study.

“This work adds to a growing body of research that does not support an interpretation of a substantive link between screen time use and poor mental health and well-being. The link is likely to be far more complex and dependent on a range of other factors (e.g., type of use/ content, other enrichment from the social environment).

“It is actually very difficult to tease apart any association; whether it is a cause, consequence or driven by something else. These studies also rely on caregiver and self-reported reports of screen time use, which can be unreliable. So, better quality studies will still be needed.

“Parents can take away from this that reports suggesting technology use can cause serious mental health and developmental impacts are premature.

“Obviously, you don’t want children spending a long time on tech every day doing the same thing. It’s always going to be important they have enriching environments (that may include some tech) to support their cognitive development and wellbeing.”

Prof Andrew Whitehouse, Angela Wright Bennett Professor of Autism Research, Kids Research Institute Australia, said:

“This study is well conducted and finds almost no link between screen time and children’s emotional and behavioural development.

“The primary issue with the paper is not methodology, which is very well done. It is relevance to current childhood.

“The paper describes an early childhood that no longer exists. These children were five years old in 2009. The iPhone had been on sale for two years and was still rare in the hands of parents. The iPad did not exist. The saturation of childhood by these devices came in the years afterwards. This means that across the early childhood, the children had almost no exposure to the ubiquity of smart devices as now exists.

“This study therefore primarily looked at the influence of TV and gaming for young children. This is not the childhood of today, where smart phones and tablets are the primary screens, and are designed to capture attention and hold it for the longest period possible. There is emerging evidence that this type of screen use is associated with increased rates of emotional and behavioural development.

“So, the main conclusion from this study is that time spent in front of the TV does not in itself appear to drive emotional and behavioural difficulties. But the impact of the modern smartphones and tablets on the developing child is a different question, and this study cannot answer it. Their early childhood came before the question existed.”

Dr Sam Teague, NHMRC Emerging Leadership Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University, said:

“There’s a chicken-and-egg problem at play here, where most of the analyses are looking at snapshots in time and thus are not able to show the direction of the relationship between screen time and children’s mental health. The longitudinal analyses in this study showed that children consuming more than five hours of screen time at age five were nearly three times more likely to have greater psychosocial difficulties by age 10, though the links by age 15 were more tepid. The broader research shows a fairly consistent link between children’s heavy screen media use and their mental health, and this study is commendable in how long the follow-up period was, which is rare in the field.

“At age five, most children in this study would have been using television as their primary screen media type (in 2010-2011), compared with today’s children who are using iPads to watch YouTube channels and streaming services that target preschoolers directly with their content. I have concerns about the differences between digital media like YouTube compared with traditional media – the content is not developed and moderated with children’s development in mind, and the algorithms recommending videos are based on maximising watch time rather than what’s best for children. Not only is the type of screen time now different, but we also know that the total amount of screen time for today’s five-year-olds is substantially higher than in 2010. We may see different outcomes for today’s five-year-olds than those in this study, and we need more research like this tracking children today to see how they grow and develop in today’s digital environments.”

‘Screen Use and Emotional, Behavioral, and Social Development in Children’ by Fiona McQuaid et al. was published in JAMA Network Open at 16:00 UK Time on Monday 3 August 2026. 

DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.26804

Declared interests

Prof Pete Etchells: “Member of the DSIT Expert Panel for Growing Up in the Online World; Member of the Australian eSafety Commissioner’s Social Media Minimum Age Evaluation Academic Advisory Group; Member of the Department for Education’s 5–16 Screen Use Expert Advisory Group; Member of the DCMS College of Experts; Author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and how to spend it better); Author of Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Games and What They Can Do For Us”

Dr Victoria Whitington: “None declared.”

Prof Adam Guastella: “None declared”

Prof Andrew Whitehouse: “None declared.”

Dr Sam Teague: “No conflicts of interest.”