June 19, 2025
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The amount of time children spend on screens has a smaller impact on their mental health than whether they have trouble disengaging from smartphones, video games and social media, new research shows.
Instead of fretting about the amount of time children spend scrolling TikTok or playing video games, parents should worry more about whether their kids seem addicted to their screens.
That's the conclusion of a study, published Wednesday, that tracked the social media, cell phone and video game use of more than 4,000 children beginning around age 10 for four years. How children engage with the screens — and whether they show signs of compulsion, distress or loss of control — has a greater impact on mental health outcomes and suicidal behaviors, the research showed.
"This is the first study to identify that addictive use is important, and is actually the root cause, instead of time," Dr. Yunyu Xiao, an assistant professor of psychiatry and population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College and the study’s lead author, told the New York Times.
The researchers characterized addictive behavior as compulsive use, difficulty disengaging from screens and feeling distress when not using social media, video games or cell phones. By age 14, nearly 1 in 3 of the teenagers fell into the "high addictive use trajectory" for cell phones and social media and more than 40% for video games. Children who fell into these categories reported much higher rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, depression and anxiety, as well as aggression and inattentiveness.
Previous research indicated that adolescents who spent more time on social media and cell phones were more likely to report mental health issues than teens who spent more time engaged in sports and other activities away from the screen.
A 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that half of adolescents spent more than 4 hours a day on screens – and about a quarter of that group reported depression or anxiety in the previous two weeks.
But the new study may cause a paradigm shift in how people address screen use among children, according to the researchers.
"If an addiction is identified, limiting use of mobile phones and social media for part of the day, may potentially reinforce addictive behaviors, so seeking professional advice is essential," Dr. Yuan Meng, one of the study's authors and a postdoctoral associate in population health sciences at Weill Cornell, said in a statement.
The American Academy of Pediatrics replaced its screen time guidelines with general recommendations in 2016 due to the wide variety in ways people use screens. The organization offers various tips for practicing healthy digital media use, including considering how — and why — screens are being used, designating specific screen-free times and ensuring that the content being viewed is enjoyable.
