Study links media multitasking to mental health and behavioural problems in children aged 8 to 12 years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted both adults and children alike. While depression and anxiety rates have sharply increased among adults, children have also been impacted in various ways. Extensive use of electronic devices such as video games, tablets, smartphones and televisions, and limited outdoor exposure has led to multiple mental health challenges in children. However, previous researchers have mostly given mixed results regarding media’s impact on children. Now, a team of researchers have conducted a study investigating technology use and the impact of media multitasking in children. The team published their results in PLOS ONE.
Media multitasking is the simultaneous use of various digital media. For example, listening to music while texting with friends. Previous studies have associated it with cognitive impairment, mental health problems and lower academic performance.
Researchers from the University of Luxembourg and Universite´de Genève conducted the study at a public primary school in Geneva, Switzerland. They recruited 118 children, both girls and boys, aged 8 to 12 years. Parents and teachers of the children filled out questionnaires, answering questions regarding the children’s use of electronic devices. The questions focused on digital technology use, attentional problems, mental health and sleep, academic problems. Furthermore, the children also completed cognitive tasks in their classroom during school timings.
Academics, Mental Health, and Behavior
Results showed an increase in the amount of media consumption and media multitasking with age. For instance, at age 8 children spent approximately four and a half hours a day using media, and by age 12 this number increased to eight hours.
The researchers did not find significant evidence of media use causing mental health problems in children. Moreover, video gaming did not affect the children’s academic performance. However, media multitasking not only caused sleep disturbances but also behaviour changes and mental health problems. Thus, indicating that it is not the amount of time spent in front of a screen, but how children consume media that can lead to problems.
This work emphasizes the need to differentiate among technology uses if one is to understand how every day digital consumption impacts human behaviour.
study authors
Reference:
Cardoso-Leite P, Buchard A, Tissieres I, Mussack D, Bavelier D (2021) Media use, attention, mental health and academic performance among 8 to 12 year old children. PLoS ONE 16(11): e0259163. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259163
