Limiting screen time good for kids’ mental health, long-term study finds | Yle News

A number of experts have recommended a maximum of two hours of screen time per day, but a Finnish researcher says he thinks that’s still too much.

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Limiting the amount of time children and adolescents spend using mobile devices, also known as screen time limits, is good for their mental health, according to findings of a Finnish study.

The findings were the result of a years-long, joint research effort by the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Eastern Finland.

The researchers intermittently tracked the lives of 187 individuals for a period of eight years — from the study subjects’ childhood through adolescence.

The study found that those who spent more time looking at screens and using mobile devices experienced more symptoms of stress and depression than those who did not.

At the same time, the researchers found that increased exercise helped to reduce stress and depression symptoms among the study’s subjects. Such symptoms were clearly more common among young people who spent comparatively more time looking at screens and exercised less.

Children and smartphones. How much is too much?

Researcher: Two hours too much

According to Eero Haapala, who is a docent in paediatric sport and exercise science at the University of Jyväskylä, several international experts have recommended that children and adolescents should limit their screen time to a maximum of two hours per day.

But Haapala said he thinks those guidelines are excessive, noting that two hours per day would amount to nearly an entire month of looking at screens every year.

According to the researchers, a balanced daily life that includes a moderate amount of screen time as well as plenty of varied physical activity should be the cornerstone of promoting the well-being of children and young people.

“Our current sedentary lifestyle, which includes a lot of digital devices, challenges the mental health of children and young people. Recently, the discussion has, to some extent, correctly focused on screen time and social media, but I hope that our results will inspire adults who can influence children and young people to promote healthy lifestyles broadly, especially in terms of a balance between screen time and exercise,” Haapala said in a university release on Thursday.

The children’s exercise and nutrition study is part of the Metabolic Diseases research community of the University of Eastern Finland.

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