{"id":1066,"date":"2025-04-17T19:05:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2025-04-18T14:26:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T14:26:15","slug":"smartphones-may-boost-childrens-mental-health-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/smartphones-may-boost-childrens-mental-health-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphones may boost children's mental health, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The question of when children should get smartphones<\/a> and whether these devices are harmful<\/a> has sparked debate for years, but new research from the University of South Florida challenges some long-held assumptions.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the study<\/a>, researchers expected to find negative outcomes tied to smartphone use among children. Instead, they found the devices may not be as damaging to kids\u2019 mental health <\/a>as some believe and could, in fact, be beneficial.<\/p>\n

Children with cellphones may fare better<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Researchers surveyed approximately 1,500 middle school students, ages 11 to 13, asking about their digital use and lives, self-esteem and whether they dealt with anxiety or depression.<\/p>\n

Children with smartphones said they were more likely to spend time with friends in person and had higher self-esteem. They were also less likely to say they felt depressed \u2014 80 percent of smartphone owners said they weren’t depressed, compared to just 69 percent of non-owners, according to the data.<\/p>\n

“It appears that just as adults need\u00a0smartphones\u00a0to have vibrant, thriving social lives, kids do as well … Seventy-eight percent of kids in our survey had their own smartphones, ” said Justin Martin, a professor\u00a0of\u00a0media\u00a0ethics at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n

“The other 20 or so percent of kids likely feel excluded, they’re more likely to be cyberbullied, and they’re kind of left out of the conversations,” he added.<\/p>\n

Social media can lead to depression<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The study challenges past research, including a 2022 study that linked frequent smartphone use to poorer mental health<\/a> in children and teens.<\/p>\n

That study was criticized by some, including social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation,” a book on the “rewiring of childhood” through smartphones, who called the study flawed.<\/p>\n

However, the Florida study’s researchers acknowledged smartphone use wasn’t all positive.<\/p>\n

They noted that certain activities, particularly posting on social media<\/a>, were tied to increased anxiety and depression in some children.<\/p>\n

Researchers said it\u2019s not just about how much screen time kids are getting \u2014 it\u2019s about what they\u2019re doing on their phones and how those interactions affect them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The question of when children should get smartphones and whether these devices are harmful has sparked debate for years, but new research from the University of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thenewamore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}