Youngsters who spend too much timestaring at televisions and computers may be more depressed thanthose who abstain completely, but kids who enjoy screen time inmoderation may be the happiest of all, a recent analysissuggests.
Many pediatricians recommend that parents limit screen timeto less than two hours a day because excessive use oftelevision, computers and mobile devices is linked to obesityand other health problems and is also thought to impaircognitive development.
For the current study, researchers analyzed data frompreviously published studies involving more than 125,000
participants and found evidence that limiting screen time makessense for children and young teens. Youth who spent at leastfive hours a day starting at screens were 80 per cent more likelyto be depressed than their peers who spent no time in front ofscreens.
There was, however, little difference in depression riskbetween children who didn't have any screen time and those whogot about two hours a day.
And the connection between screen time and depression wasonly statistically meaningful for children under 14, the studyfound. Screen time didn't appear connected to depression inolder teens.
Overall, in smaller doses, screen time appeared to be a goodthing. Compared to children who had no screen time at all, thosewho got a half hour daily were 8 per cent less likely to bedepressed and kids allowed an hour a day had 12 per cent lowerodds.
"The finding of the lower depression risk with a relativelylow quantity of screen time may suggest that exposure toscreen/media, when in moderation, can have potentially positiveimpacts on adolescents' mental health," said senior study authorDr. Yao Shuqiao of the Medical Psychological Institute, SecondXiangya Hospital of Central South University in Hunan, China.
Longer screen time may mean fewer hours in the day for moreproductive or active endeavours, whether exercise or interactingwith friends, which may negatively affect physical and mentalhealth, Shuqiao added by email.
"We suggest that parents may consider limiting theirchildren's screen time to under two hours a day, preferablyabout one hour," Shuqiao said.
The analysis included many observational studies, making itdifficult to rule out how other lifestyle factors mightinfluence depression risk, Shuqiao and colleagues acknowledge inthe British Journal of Sports Medicine. Measures of depressionalso weren't uniform across all of the studies used in theanalysis.
It's also possible that the type of screen time matters,said Dr. Larry Rosen, professor emeritus at California State
University Dominguez Hills.
While passive activities like watching television may belinked to a greater depression risk, active pursuits like
texting on mobile phones or chatting on social media don'tnecessarily carry the same risk, Rosen, who wasn't involved inthe study, said by email.
When it comes to screen time and depression, "what is mostimportant is what that time is used for and how long it is usedwithout breaks," Rosen said.
It's not surprising that the teens who had only moderateamounts of screen time had a lower risk of depression than theirpeers who got none at all because the youth who used devices inmoderation may have an overall more balanced life, said GaryGoldfield, a psychology researcher at the University of Ottawawho wasn't involved in the study.
"People with such low levels of screen time are probablyengaged in many other activities, such as organized sport,
dance, music or other hobbies that involve interpersonalinteraction, which may protect them from depression," Goldfieldsaid by email.
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