Can reducing screen time to 3 hours improve children's mental health?

Reducing screen time for children to just three hours per week can result in significant improvements in their mental health, a team of psychologists and mental health specialists affiliated with several institutions in Denmark suggests.

The group, which also works with a colleague from the United Kingdom,  describes in the paper published in the journal JAMA Network Open, how they conducted a randomised clinical trial involving 89 families and the impact of reducing screen time on electronic devices, reported Medical Xpress.

Children spending long stretches of time using electronic devices, either to watch movies or video, engage in social media or play video games, have risks of mental health problems like antisocial behavior and difficulties with handling emotions, as per an earlier research.

The research team wondered in this new study whether taking away such activities would improve mental health, and if so, how quickly might it bring change.

A clinical trial involving 89 families that included 181 children from 10 cities in Denmark was conducted by the researchers to find out changes.

The trial involved testing all the children in the study using the "Utilising the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" to learn more about their social skills, general behavior, emotional stability and overall mental health.

Then they asked all the children in 45 of the families to restrict their use of electronic devices to just three hours per week. This did not include school usage. Additionally, video monitors were installed in the homes of participants to ensure compliance for two weeks.

Afterward, to see if there were any differences, all the children were asked to fill out the same questionnaire again.

As a result, significant improvements in the children's social skills were found by the research team, including reductions in behavioral problems and in dealing with emotional issues.