ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2024
Change in screen time and overuse, and their association with psychological well-being among US-wide school-age children during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) years 2018-21.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Digital Screen Time and Mental Health Difficulties Among Preschool Children in Western China: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Association between Internet addiction and mental health problems among Chinese adolescents in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era: a propensity score matching study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Child and adolescent mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: an overview of key findings from a thematic series.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Review
- Pre-sleep screen time and screen time addiction as shared determinants of poor sleep and obesity in adolescents aged 11-14 years in Scotland.BMC global and public health · 2025Article
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3 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies on screen use and children's mental health during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic focused only on the timeframe during the pandemic, on children between narrow age ranges, only among a subset of children who have previously reported COVID-related severe family economic hardship or worries, or did not distinguish between instructive versus recreational device usage. Thus, in this study, we analyzed trends, specifically related to recreational screen use, and associations with psychological well-being (PWB) in the years before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, among a wide range of school-aged children, widely across the nation.
methodsUsing the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) years 2018-21, we analyzed a large random sample of school-aged children (6-17 years old) across the US (n = 88,823). We developed PWB issue scores (PWBIS) using self-reported measures relevant to this age group, and constructed regression models to assess the magnitude of the contribution of the pandemic on recreational screen use and PWB.
resultsThe prevalence of recreational screen overuse and PWBIS increased significantly during the pandemic, compared to prior years. We also detected a notable effect of the pandemic on increased PWBIS, as well as its interaction term finding that it strengthened the association between screen time and PWBIS (p < 0.01 across all regression models).
conclusionsAccordingly, our results demonstrate the importance of the pandemic itself as an independent adverse factor and effect measure modifier for screen overuse and PWB more generally among all school-age children widely across the US. Our study used the most current data available, and future studies to evaluate whether these effects are persistent in the years after the pandemic are important.
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