ArticleComputers in human behavior reports2022
The impact of screen time and green time on mental health in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Computers in human behavior reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mental health trajectories of children and adolescents up to 5 years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Measuring Digital Stress in Children: Construct Validity, Model Comparisons, and Measurement Invariance of a Multidimensional Scale (DSS-CH).Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Factors Associated with Changes in Capability-Wellbeing for Children and Young People of Secondary School Age During the First COVID-19 Lockdown.Child indicators research · 2026Article
- Socio-demographic correlates of health behaviors of children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Internal and external factors influencing Gen Z wellbeing.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Paper vs. screen: inclination matters during global-local visual processing.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Coping with the invisible impacts of COVID-19 in a context of polycrises: wellbeing strategies of marginalised urban and Indigenous Brazilian youth.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Neighborhood environments underpin screen time intervention success in children: Evidence from a study of greenspace and community programming across 130 US communities.Health & place · 2024Article
- The Impact of Screen Exposure on Screen Addiction and Sensory Processing in Typically Developing Children Aged 6-10 Years.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Impact of smartphone on mental health among medical undergraduates: A cross-sectional study.Journal of education and health promotion · 2024Article
- Chronic impacts of natural infrastructure on the physical and psychological health of university students during and after COVID-19: a case study of Chengdu, China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Parent-Perceived Benefits and Harms Associated With Internet Use by Adolescent Offspring.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Youth psychosocial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.Current opinion in psychology · 2023Review
- Natural environments, psychosocial health, and health behaviors in a crisis - A scoping review of the literature in the COVID-19 context.Journal of environmental psychology · 2023Article
- Screen-viewing behaviours of children before and after the 2020-21 COVID-19 lockdowns in the UK: a mixed methods study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Physical and Mental Health of School-Aged Children.HCA healthcare journal of medicine · 2023Review
- Increase of depression among children and adolescents after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2022Review
- Review
- Raising the Child-Do Screen Media Help or Hinder? The Quality over Quantity Hypothesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Screen time and its correlates among children aged 3-10 years during COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal: a community-based cross-sectional study.BMJ open ophthalmology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the life of children and adolescents in an unprecedented way. In the present study, we focused on two activities that have been likely affected by mitigation measures: screen time and green time. We investigated how both influenced each other during the pandemic, how they affected children's and adolescents' mental health, and which role socio-demographic characteristics have in predicting screen time, green time, and mental health. We used data collected between autumn 2020 and spring 2021 from 844 participants aged 5 to 19 of a population-based, prospective cohort study in Canton Ticino, Italian-speaking Switzerland. We analyzed the data using an extended version of the Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model with time-invariant socio-demographic covariates and mental health as outcome. Results showed that, at the between-person level, screen time was a risk factor and green time a protective factor of mental health. However, within-person deviations of screen time and green time during the pandemic did not consistently predict mental health. Furthermore, they did not influence each other over time. Gender, age, perceived economic situation of the family, Body Mass Index and the availability of green space nearby all influenced stable measures of green time and screen time (i.e., random intercepts). Our results highlight the need for targeted actions to promote green time and raise awareness about the detrimental effect of screen time on children's and adolescents' mental health.
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