{"id":914,"date":"2025-04-17T19:05:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=914"},"modified":"2025-04-21T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T11:22:00","slug":"smartphones-may-boost-childrens-mental-health-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.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\u00a0with\u00a0cellphones\u00a0may fare\u00a0better<\/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\u00a0media\u00a0can\u00a0lead\u00a0to\u00a0depression<\/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\u00a0smartphones, 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 South Florida challenges some long-held assumptions. Leading up to the study, 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 as some believe and could, in fact,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}