ArticleJMIR mental health2021
Passive Sensing of Preteens' Smartphone Use: An Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Cohort Substudy.
Article in JMIR mental health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06810570 (Understanding the Impact of Interactive Electronic Devices on Young Children's Development and Health), which is not on this map. Cited by 48 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Understanding the Impact of Interactive Electronic Devices on Young Children's Development and Health: the iKids Study
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- Applications of the experience sampling method (ESM) in paediatric healthcare: a systematic review.Pediatric research · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Increasing social media use trajectories are linked to greater eating disorder symptoms.Annals of epidemiology · 2026Article
- A systematic review of digital and wearable sensor data in the ABCD study: Insights, methods, and emerging opportunities.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Social media use, smoking expectancies, and nicotine experimentation in early adolescents: A prospective cohort study.The American journal on addictions · 2026Article
- Associations between screen time and dietary intake among early adolescents: a prospective cohort study.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Social Media Use Trajectories and Substance Use Experimentation: A Prospective Cohort Study.The American journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Social Media Usage and Its Association With the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire Scale Among Early Adolescents.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Associations of adolescent social media use trajectories with spatial and verbal memory: a prospective cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Article
- Examining differences in parent-reported screen time from school to summer in children: an observational cohort study.BMC public health · 2026Observational
- Prospective associations of sleep duration and screen time with transition from overweight/obesity to normal BMI in U.S. adolescents.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Article
- Screen Usage and Social Media Motives in Gender and Sexual Minority Adolescents.Archives of sexual behavior · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Fatigue, Obesity and Physical Inactivity: Health Correlates of Problematic Smartphone Use in Adolescents.Child: care, health and development · 2026Article
- Measuring screen time among adolescents: test-retest reliability of HBSC questionnaire items across two countries.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Associations between social media and crystallized and fluid performance trajectories in early adolescence.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2025Article
- Longitudinal Patterns of Digital Parenting Restrictions and Adolescent Screen Use: Insights from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Longitudinal changes in screen time, sleep, and sports/exercise activity in early adolescence.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Decomposing genetic effects of social connectedness and depression on youth behaviors and long-term clinical outcomes.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Testing the feasibility of passive sensing among adolescents: Implications for mental health.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 11 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundConcerns abound regarding childhood smartphone use, but studies to date have largely relied on self-reported screen use. Self-reporting of screen use is known to be misreported by pediatric samples and their parents, limiting the accurate determination of the impact of screen use on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Thus, a more passive, objective measurement of smartphone screen use among children is needed.
objectiveThis study aims to passively sense smartphone screen use by time and types of apps used in a pilot sample of children and to assess the feasibility of passive sensing in a larger longitudinal sample.
methodsThe Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study used passive, objective phone app methods for assessing smartphone screen use over 4 weeks in 2019-2020 in a subsample of 67 participants (aged 11-12 years; 31/67, 46% female; 23/67, 34% White). Children and their parents both reported average smartphone screen use before and after the study period, and they completed a questionnaire regarding the acceptability of the study protocol. Descriptive statistics for smartphone screen use, app use, and protocol feasibility and acceptability were reviewed. Analyses of variance were run to assess differences in categorical app use by demographics. Self-report and parent report were correlated with passive sensing data.
resultsSelf-report of smartphone screen use was partly consistent with objective measurement (r=0.49), although objective data indicated that children used their phones more than they reported. Passive sensing revealed the most common types of apps used were for streaming (mean 1 hour 57 minutes per day, SD 1 hour 32 minutes), communication (mean 48 minutes per day, SD 1 hour 17 minutes), gaming (mean 41 minutes per day, SD 41 minutes), and social media (mean 36 minutes per day, SD 1 hour 7 minutes). Passive sensing of smartphone screen use was generally acceptable to children (43/62, 69%) and parents (53/62, 85%).
conclusionsThe results of passive, objective sensing suggest that children use their phones more than they self-report. Therefore, use of more robust methods for objective data collection is necessary and feasible in pediatric samples. These data may then more accurately reflect the impact of smartphone screen use on behavioral and emotional functioning. Accordingly, the ABCD study is implementing a passive sensing protocol in the full ABCD cohort. Taken together, passive assessment with a phone app provided objective, low-burden, novel, informative data about preteen smartphone screen use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.