Can reducing screen time to 3 hours improve children’s mental health?

Reducing children’s screen time to just three hours a week can lead to significant improvements in their mental health, suggests a team of psychologists and mental health experts working with various institutions in Denmark.

The team, which also works with a colleague from the UK, describes in the paper published in the journal JAMA Network Open how they conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 89 families and the impact of reducing screen time on electronic devices. Medical Xpress.

Children who spend a long time using electronic devices, whether to watch movies or videos, engage in social media or play video games, are at risk of mental health problems such as antisocial behavior and difficulties handling emotions, according to previous research.

The research team asked in this new study whether removing such activities would improve mental health, and if so, how quickly it might bring about changes.

A clinical trial involving 89 families involving 181 children from 10 Danish cities was conducted by the researchers to discover the changes.

The trial involved testing all the children in the study using the ‘Utilization of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire’ to find out more about their social skills, general behaviour, emotional stability and overall mental health.

They then asked all children in 45 of the families to limit their use of electronic devices to just three hours a week. This did not include school use. In addition, video monitors were installed in participants’ homes to ensure compliance for two weeks.

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

As a result, the research team found significant improvements in the children’s social skills, including reductions in behavioral problems and coping with emotional issues.