WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - One of the largest studies on children and screen time has found that spending more time on screens may affect several areas of their health and development.
Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the study looked at data from more than 2.8 million children across 64 countries. Researchers examined screen use on devices such as smartphones and televisions, as well as activities including social media, gaming and video calls.
The researchers found that higher levels of screen and social media use were linked to less favourable outcomes in several areas of children's development and wellbeing.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada, also found that high screen use was linked to weaker language skills.
Children who spent more time on screens also tended to have lower overall grades at school. However, researchers did not find a clear link between screen time and performance in maths, reading or science.
'Our review revealed that higher so-called doses of screen exposure are associated with lower overall academic achievement and poorer language development, as well as higher internalising and externalising behaviour, emotional problems and peer problems,' the authors wrote.
'Notably, these effect sizes are similar in magnitude to or larger than those reported for other well-established predictors of children's outcomes, such as socioeconomic status, parenting behaviour and preterm birth.'
Upon examining mental health of the participants, the researchers found that greater screen exposure was associated with more emotional and peer-related problems. It was also linked to 'internalising behavior', which includes symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as 'externalising' problems such as aggression and symptoms of ADHD.
'Taken together, the findings suggest that screen use may represent one potentially modifiable factor associated with children's well-being across multiple domains,' the authors concluded.
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