Research shows that reducing children’s screen time to just three hours a week improves mental health

A team of psychologists and mental health specialists from several institutions in Denmark, together with a colleague from the United Kingdom, have discovered that reducing children’s screen time to just three hours a week can lead to significant improvements in their mental health.

In the newspaper, published in the diary JAMA Network Openedthe group describes how they conducted a randomized clinical trial with 89 families and what the impact is of reducing screen time on electronic devices.

Previous research has shown that children who use electronic devices for long periods of time (e.g., watching movies or videos, using social media, or playing video games) often lead to mental health problems, such as antisocial behavior and problems coping with emotions.

Such findings become problematic, some in the field have suggested, when it becomes endemic. Previous research has suggested that children in Denmark spend an average of 7 to 8 hours a day on their personal electronic devices, a statistic that suggests most children are doing little more than going to school and playing on their phones, laptops or computers.

In this new study, the research team asked whether removing such activities would improve mental health, and if so, how quickly that might happen. To find out, they conducted a clinical trial involving 89 families, including 181 children, from 10 cities in Denmark.

In the study, all children in the study were tested using the Utilizing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to learn more about their social skills, general behavior, emotional stability and overall mental health.

They then asked all children in 45 families to limit their use of electronic devices to just three hours per week (excluding school use), for two weeks. Video surveillance systems were installed in participants’ homes to ensure compliance.

Afterwards, all children were asked to complete the same questionnaire again to see if there were any differences.

The research team found what they describe as significant improvements in the children’s social skills, including a decrease in behavioral problems and a decrease in coping with emotional problems.

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