For children, not all forms of screen time are made equal

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-11-18 06:00

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Children's mental health and academic achievement may be impacted by the type of screen time they engage in rather than just the amount of time they are in front of a screen, according to international researchers. The team collected questionnaire data on about 120 children aged 8-12 and asked them to perform cognitive tests to see how they were consuming media and how it might be impacting them. The researchers say 'media multitasking,' such as listening to music while scrolling online, was more associated with negative mental health, while playing video games was associated with better mental health and faster response times on testing. The researchers say more focus is needed on the type of media consumption rather than simply looking at total screen time.