The antidote to screen time might be green time

A new study led by the University of Queensland suggests that swapping “screen time” with “green time” can benefit adolescent mental health. The advice emerges from a research study published this month in The Lancet: Child & Adolescent Health on half a million 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds living in 42 European and North American “high income” countries.

The study found the effect in all adolescents, but underscored that teenage girls appeared to be more susceptible to physical and mental risks from prolonged use of electronic devices.

A woman looking at a smartphone [Pixabay]

The study team was led by Asaduzzaman Khan, Ph.D., an associate professor in biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. They gathered data from three separate rounds of a survey called “Health Behavior in School-aged Children,” conducted as part of a report for the World Health Organization.

The survey is anonymous, with self-reported indicators of life satisfaction as well as physical and psychological complaints. These were used to measure adolescents’ mental wellbeing. These data were then combined with the adolescents’ self-reported discretionary use of screens and engagement in physical activity.

The survey from which the data were obtained is cross-sectional, so an explicit cause-effect relationship cannot be shown. The researchers broke down the data to examine if “dose-dependent” trends could also be spotted. That is, could specific incremental amounts of screen time be related to similar levels of deterioration in mental health status.

“We found there were some benefits during the first hour of daily screen use, but detrimental effects of recreational screen use on mental wellbeing kick in after 75 minutes in girls and 105 minutes in boys,” Dr. Khan said.

The more screen time the adolescents reported, the worse they felt. The data noted that respondents who less active physically were also more likely to report feeling irritable and/or nervous. They also reported more trouble sleeping as well as physical symptoms like backaches, headaches, and stomachaches.

“Excess screen time effects can include depression, obesity, poor quality of life, unhealthy diet and decreased physical and cognitive abilities,” added Dr. Khan.

The researchers also reported that only 19% of respondents were physically active every day. This is noteworthy because all the data were collected before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman standing in the surf by the ocean [Pixabay]

But it was also clear from the data that the adolescents who engage in physical activity muted the reported effects of screens. “Combining increased physical activity with reduced screen time showed a gradual beneficial effect on mental wellbeing across genders,” Dr. Khan said. “One hour of physical activity and no more than two hours of screen time a day provided optimal mental wellbeing.”

The effect of psychical activity was observed even with higher levels of screen use. Adolescents who reported eight or more hours a day on their screens also higher levels of physical activity still reported increases in life satisfaction and fewer health complaints.

Previous research has also noted the association between screen use and mental health in children and adolescents, including the does-repose nature of the effect.  In 2015,  research led by the Hunan University of Science and Technology and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reported similar findings.

Dr. Khan placed the research stream in perspective, saying that “we’re now trying to understand effects of various types of screen use on mental well-being – whether passive [e.g. television] and mentally active [e.g. electronic games] have equivalent and dose-dependent links with the mental well-being of adolescents.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. “All children and teens need adequate sleep (8-12 hours, depending on age), physical activity (1 hour), and time away from media,” they noted, giving further information to parents. “Designate media-free times together (e.g., family dinner) and media-free zones (e.g., bedrooms). Children should not sleep with devices in their bedrooms, including TVs, computers, and smartphones.”

The Australian research suggests that physical activity is important but the context of those activities, that is being outdoors, may also be relevant. Previous research has also been clear about the benefits of outdoor activities on adolescents and children.  Dr. Khan noted that “We can create ‘technology-free zones,’ set aside times to unplug, explain why we’re limiting their screen time, and create opportunities for other activities especially in outdoor settings”.

Eugene Beresin, MD, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told HealthDay that excessive screen time isn’t much good for anyone. “The more we use digital media, the less time we spend being physically active and being in nature.”

Indeed, in 2018, Canadian researchers at Western University reviewed the state-of-the-science on incorporating nature as a means to promote a positive impact on children’s health, including its physical, mental, and social dimensions. The research published in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that the evidence is diverse, even difficult to interpret noting “About half of all reported findings revealed statistically significant positive relationships between nature and mental health outcomes and almost half reported no statistical significance.”

The researchers also called for better measurement and experimentation to understand the effects of involving children in green spaces. “Findings support the contention that nature positively influences mental health,” they noted. “However, in most cases, additional research with more rigorous study designs and objective measures of both nature and mental health outcomes are needed to confirm statistically significant relationships.”

Kahn’s team closed their research article noting that conversations about screen use should be part of a public health strategy that reminds adolescents – and perhaps everyone – that too much is almost always a bad thing.


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