A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that many parents were right to worry about their children’s screen time during the pandemic. In May 2020, 12- to 13-year-olds in the United States spent an average of 7.7 hours a day on non-school-related screen time, up from 3.8 hours a day before the epidemic. Research shows that youngsters of color and those from low-income homes spend more time in front of a screen than their white, richer counterparts.

Films, videos, and television shows were the most popular forms of entertainment among the study’s participants.

JAMA Pediatrics research main author Jason Nagata, MD, UCSF assistant professor of pediatrics, noted that increased screen use can contribute to mental health issues such as melancholy and anxiety. According to Nagata, “as screen time increased, so did adolescents’ worry and stress, while their coping abilities decreased.” However, despite the fact that social media and video chat might facilitate social connections and support, we discovered that the majority of adolescents’ screen use during the pandemic did not serve this objective.”

“Screen time lends itself to more sedentary time and less physical activity, snacking while distracted,” Nagata said. “Eating in the absence of hunger, and greater exposure to food advertising” are also connected with excessive screen time in adolescents.

Screen time differed by race and income before the pandemic, and those trends were shown to persist in the current study.

When it comes to screen time, “we generally found higher screen time in adolescents from lower-income households,” Nagata noted. A lack of access to secure outdoor spaces or a lack of financial resources could be to blame, as well as structural and systemic problems.

Adolescents in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) longitudinal research, who are 12-13 years old, self-reported how much time they spent in front of a screen. From 2016 until 2026, over 12,000 pre-adolescents will be studied as part of the ABCD project.