Screens and teen well-being — what the data show

The question comes back in every public debate: are screens damaging teenagers’ mental health? The answer depends less on intuition than on how the data are analysed.

The problem of analytic flexibility

Large population surveys contain hundreds of variables. By choosing one well-being measure and one measure of digital use, you can get almost any result. Orben and Przybylski (2019) applied a “specification curve analysis” that tests all reasonable combinations, across three datasets (355,358 participants in total).

What they found

The association between digital technology use and adolescent well-being is negative but small: it explains at most 0.4% of the variation in well-being. The authors judge these effects too small to warrant policy change on their own.

Limits of this finding

• It is a correlation: it does not say which way any effect runs, or whether there is one.
• An average can hide differences: certain uses (harassment, constant comparison, night-time use) or more vulnerable teenagers may be more affected without it showing up in the average effect.
• Measures rely on the young people’s own reports, with the usual biases.
• The authors’ interpretation (“too small to warrant action”) is itself debated.

In practice: rather than asking how many hours, it is more useful to look at what the screen replaces (sleep, physical activity, in-person relationships) and how the young person feels afterwards.

Sources

According to PubMed:

• Orben A., Przybylski A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour. DOI