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Nature Human Behaviour (2023 )Cite this article Electronic Bus Sign
The influence of electronic screens on the health of children and adolescents and their education is not well understood. In this prospectively registered umbrella review (PROSPERO identifier CRD42017076051), we harmonized effects from 102 meta-analyses (2,451 primary studies; 1,937,501 participants) of screen time and outcomes. In total, 43 effects from 32 meta-analyses met our criteria for statistical certainty. Meta-analyses of associations between screen use and outcomes showed small-to-moderate effects (range: r = –0.14 to 0.33). In education, results were mixed; for example, screen use was negatively associated with literacy (r = –0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = –0.20 to –0.09, P ≤ 0.001, k = 38, N = 18,318), but this effect was positive when parents watched with their children (r = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.28, P = 0.028, k = 12, N = 6,083). In health, we found evidence for several small negative associations; for example, social media was associated with depression (r = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.19, P ≤ 0.001, k = 12, N = 93,740). Limitations of our review include the limited number of studies for each outcome, medium-to-high risk of bias in 95 out of 102 included meta-analyses and high heterogeneity (17 out of 22 in education and 20 out of 21 in health with I2 > 50%). We recommend that caregivers and policymakers carefully weigh the evidence for potential harms and benefits of specific types of screen use.
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All data for this review are available from the authors’ GitHub repository (https://github.com/motivation-and-Behaviour/screen_umbrella) or from the Open Science Foundation (https://osf.io/3ubqp/).
All codes used in these analyses are available on the authors’ GitHub repository (https://github.com/motivation-and-Behaviour/screen_umbrella).
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Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Taren Sanders, Philip Parker, Nicole Weeks, Hugh Arnott, Roberta Vasconcellos, James Conigrave & Chris Lonsdale
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Department of Sport Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain
Biomedical Research and Innovation Institute of Cádiz (INiBICA) Research Unit, Puerta del Mar University Hospital, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain
Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, Queensland, Australia
Faculty of Sport and Health Scienchresholds for statistical credibilites, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia
School of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
The Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
The Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Department of Movement and Sport Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Jo Salmon & Kylie Hesketh
The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
School of Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Rebecca Pagano & Jamie Sherson
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