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An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths’ interactions with electronic screens

Nature Human Behaviour volume 8, pages 82–99 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

The influence of electronic screens on the health of children and adolescents and their education is not well understood. In this prospectively registered umbrella review (PROSPERO identifier CRD42017076051), we harmonized effects from 102 meta-analyses (2,451 primary studies; 1,937,501 participants) of screen time and outcomes. In total, 43 effects from 32 meta-analyses met our criteria for statistical certainty. Meta-analyses of associations between screen use and outcomes showed small-to-moderate effects (range: r = –0.14 to 0.33). In education, results were mixed; for example, screen use was negatively associated with literacy (r = –0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = –0.20 to –0.09, P ≤ 0.001, k = 38, N = 18,318), but this effect was positive when parents watched with their children (r = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.28, P = 0.028, k = 12, N = 6,083). In health, we found evidence for several small negative associations; for example, social media was associated with depression (r = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.19, P ≤ 0.001, k = 12, N = 93,740). Limitations of our review include the limited number of studies for each outcome, medium-to-high risk of bias in 95 out of 102 included meta-analyses and high heterogeneity (17 out of 22 in education and 20 out of 21 in health with I2 > 50%). We recommend that caregivers and policymakers carefully weigh the evidence for potential harms and benefits of specific types of screen use.

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Fig. 1: Study selection process.
Fig. 2: Education outcomes.
Fig. 3: Health and health-related behaviour outcomes.

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Data availability

All data for this review are available from the authors’ GitHub repository (https://github.com/motivation-and-Behaviour/screen_umbrella) or from the Open Science Foundation (https://osf.io/3ubqp/).

Code availability

All codes used in these analyses are available on the authors’ GitHub repository (https://github.com/motivation-and-Behaviour/screen_umbrella).

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Acknowledgements

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Taren Sanders, Philip Parker, Nicole Weeks, Hugh Arnott, Roberta Vasconcellos, James Conigrave & Chris Lonsdale

  2. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Michael Noetel

  3. Department of Sport Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Borja Del Pozo Cruz

  4. Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

    Borja Del Pozo Cruz

  5. Biomedical Research and Innovation Institute of Cádiz (INiBICA) Research Unit, Puerta del Mar University Hospital, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain

    Borja Del Pozo Cruz

  6. Centre for Health Research, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield, Queensland, Australia

    Stuart Biddle

  7. Faculty of Sport and Health Scienchresholds for statistical credibilites, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Stuart Biddle

  8. Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia

    Rimante Ronto

  9. School of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Ryan Hulteen

  10. The Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Rhiannon Parker

  11. The Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    George Thomas

  12. Department of Movement and Sport Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Katrien De Cocker

  13. Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

    Jo Salmon & Kylie Hesketh

  14. The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Emma Devine

  15. School of Education, Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Rebecca Pagano & Jamie Sherson

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Contributions

T.S., M.N., P.P. and C.L. conceptualized the review and drafted the manuscript. T.S., M.N. and P.P. conducted the analyses. All authors contributed to data extraction, interpretation and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Taren Sanders.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Human Behaviour thanks Youjie Zhang, Gonzalo Arrondo, and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Files 2–5, 7 and 9–11.

Reporting Summary

Peer Review File

Supplementary Data 1

List of identified exposures.

Supplementary Data 2

Cleaned effect size data for all included effects.

Supplementary Data 3

References for systematic reviews that did not contain meta-analyses.

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Sanders, T., Noetel, M., Parker, P. et al. An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths’ interactions with electronic screens. Nat Hum Behav 8, 82–99 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01712-8

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