Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 30, Issue 5, Pages 682-696Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0956797619830329
Keywords
large-scale social data; digital technology use; adolescents; well-being; time-use diary; specification-curve analysis; open materials; preregistered
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01-HD069609/R01-AG040213]
- National Science Foundation [SES-1157698/1623684]
- Department of Children and Youth Affairs
- European Union Horizon 2020 IBSEN Grant
- Understanding Society Fellowship - Economic and Social Research Council
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The notion that digital-screen engagement decreases adolescent well-being has become a recurring feature in public, political, and scientific conversation. The current level of psychological evidence, however, is far removed from the certainty voiced by many commentators. There is little clear-cut evidence that screen time decreases adolescent well-being, and most psychological results are based on single-country, exploratory studies that rely on inaccurate but popular self-report measures of digital-screen engagement. In this study, which encompassed three nationally representative large-scale data sets from Ireland, the United States, and the United Kingdom (N = 17,247 after data exclusions) and included time-use-diary measures of digital-screen engagement, we used both exploratory and confirmatory study designs to introduce methodological and analytical improvements to a growing psychological research area. We found little evidence for substantial negative associations between digital-screen engagement-measured throughout the day or particularly before bedtime-and adolescent well-being.
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