Citation

Orben A, Przybylski AK. Psychol. Sci. 2019; 30(5): 682-696.

Affiliation

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1177/0956797619830329

PMID

30939250

Abstract

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.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescents; digital technology use; large-scale social data; open materials; preregistered; specification-curve analysis; time-use diary; well-being