Longer screen time risks children's emotional and behavioral problems ↑…a vicious cycle of increasing dependence on
Jun 10, 2025
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This is the result of a study by an international research team led by Professor Michael Noettel of the University of Queensland in Australia, which was released in the Journal of Psychological Bulletin of the American Psychological Association (APA). The research team meta-analyzed 117 studies, including data from 292,000 children around the world, and found that increased screen usage time can lead to children's emotional and behavioral problems, and children with these problems tend to rely more on screens to relieve stress.
As a result of the analysis, the likelihood of experiencing social-emotional problems increased statistically significantly as the screen usage time increased, and in the case of children experiencing social-emotional problems, the screen usage time tended to increase significantly again.
By age, it was found that children aged 6-10 are more likely to experience social-emotional problems as they use more screens than 0-5 years old. In addition, according to gender, the more girls used screens, the more likely they were to experience social-emotional problems, and boys tended to use screens more when they experienced social-emotional difficulties.
Among screen content, games were found to have a greater impact on children's social-emotional problems than educational or leisure content.
The longer the game time, the greater the risk of social-emotional problems, and children experiencing social-emotional problems were more likely to rely on games to solve them.
Recently, a study found that sleep disorders caused by excessive digital device screen use can significantly increase the risk of depression in female students. Dr. Sebastian Höckby's team at the University of Karolinska, Sweden, published in the medical journal PLOS Global Public Health, drew this conclusion by observing the relationship between screen usage time, sleep disorders, and depression of more than 4,800 teenagers for 12 months.
A domestic study also confirmed that excessive screen media exposure and smartphone use of elementary school students are closely related to behavioral and emotional problems such as attention deficit, depression, and impulsiveness.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
