Screen Time Impact Study

 

In a review of 132 previous studies involving tens of thousands kids, researchers found that excessive screen use was linked to social-emotional problems and that social-emotional problems also led to more screen use. However, moderate amounts of screen time had minimal impacts. However, using screens for gaming was associated with significantly more negative mental health outcomes.

Vasconcellos, R. P., et al. (2025). Electronic screen use and children’s socioemotional problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 151(5), 513–543. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000468

AI and Screen Media Use Study

 A survey by Common Sense Media reveals that nearly one-third of children age 8 and younger use AI for school-related learning, with 23% of parents noting a mostly positive impact. The study also highlights that children spend an average of 2.5 hours daily on screen media, with a significant increase in gaming since 2020.

Among parents who said their child has used AI tools, 23% said the impact of AI on their child's understanding of school-related material was mostly positive. Fifty-five percent said AI had no impact at all; 16% reported both positive and negative impacts; and 5% called the impact mostly negative.

Other findings from the survey include:

• Children aged 8 and younger spend about two-and-a-half hours a day with screen media. Sixty percent of that time is spent on TV/video viewing; 26% on gaming. Just 1% of screen time is spent on homework.
• Gaming time has increased by 65% since 2020, while TV/video viewing has fallen by 18%. Within that TV/video category, short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are on the rise.
• By age 2, 40% of children have their own tablet. By age 4, that number goes up to 58%.
• By age 8, one in four children have their own cell phone.
• Roughly one in five children use devices for comfort, meal times, or to fall asleep. (https://thejournal.com/Articles/2025/03/11/Research-1-in-3-Kids-Use-AI-for-Learning.aspx)

The 2025 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight. (2025). Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/the-2025-common-sense-census-media-use-by-kids-zero-to-eight

Student social skills and screen time study

A new study suggests that, despite the large amount of time spent on smartphones and social media, young people today are just as socially skilled as those from the previous generation. Researchers compared teacher and parent evaluations of children who started kindergarten in 1998, six years before Facebook launched, with those who began school in 2010, when the first iPad debuted. The findings show that both groups of kids received similar ratings on their interpersonal skills, including the ability to form and maintain friendships and get along with those who are different. The two groups were also rated similarly on self-control, such as the ability to regulate their temper. There was one exception, however: Social skills were slightly lower for children who accessed online gaming and social networking sites several times a day.

Downey, D. B., & Gibbs, B. G. (2020). Kids These Days: Are Face-to-Face Social Skills among American Children Declining?. American Journal of Sociology, 125(4), 1030-1083.

Online Gaming Behavior and Teens

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of the first large-scale study examining the relationship among specific aspects of gaming and teen civic activities and commitments. The research found that playing games with others in person was related to civic and political outcomes, but playing with others online had no relationship to these outcomes. Teens who participated in social interaction related to a game-such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards-were more engaged civically and politically. The study found that 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games and that 99% of boys and 94% of girls play video games. Most teens (76%) play the games with others; 65% play with people in the room with them, and 27% play with people they connect with on the internet. Nearly half of the teens playing online games do so with people they know in their offline lives.

Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games, and civics: Teens’ gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED525058.pdf

Technology use and gender survey

     The gender gap in technology has decreased, as found by a survey of students, teachers, administrators and parents. The number of students who maintain a profile on a social networking site has decreased by nearly 40% in the last five years according to a new report from Project  This year only 30% of middle school students  and 39% of  students in grades 9-10 told researchers they were actively using such a site.
     Girls report using social tools for schoolwork more than boys. Among girls who self-identify as advanced technology users, 75% say they text with classmates as compared to only 66% of boys who identify as advanced users. Even girls who say they are average or beginner technology users say they text with classmates at a rate of 73%. Girls who identify as advanced users are also 8%  more likely to report find that they find videos to help with schoolwork than similarly tech-savvy boys, 10% more likely to use Facebook to collaborate on schoolwork and 3% more likely to use Skype or iChat with classmates.
     About 42% of girls in 3-5 grades, and 37% in middle school, stated that they regularly played games on tables, compared with 38% of boys in the same grades.
Speak Up. (2014).  The new digital learning playbook. Irvine, CA: Project Tomorrow.
http://www.tomoorow.org/speakup/SU13DigitalLearningPlaybook_StudentReport.html

www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU13DigitalLearningPlaybook_StudentReport.html#sthash.tGcpaqlV.dpuf

The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students’ Activities and Aspirations - See more at: http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=7469#sthash.tGcpaqlV.dpuf

Gaming and speech development study

Young children who play noneducational games on touch-screen devices may present lower scores in speech development benchmarks, according to a recent study. The study from Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York found that playing games, such as "Angry Birds" or "Fruit Ninja," resulted in lower scores in speech tests for both understanding of language and speaking. "Technology can never replace a parent's interaction with his or her child," said the study's chief investigator. "Just talking to your child is the best way to encourage learning."
North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System. (2014, May 3). Lower verbal test score for toddlers who play non-educational games on touch screens.ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140503082728.htm

Video gaming benefits studies

The researchers identified four types of positive impact that video games have on the kids who play them: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social. Gameplay has cognitive benefit because games have been shown to improve attention, focus, and reaction time. Games have motivational benefit because they encourage an incremental, rather than an entity theory of intelligence. Games have emotional benefit because they induce positive mood states; in addition, there is speculative evidence that games may help kids develop adaptive emotion regulation. Games have social benefit because gamers are able to translate the prosocial skills that they learn from co-playing or multiplayer gameplay to “peer and family relations outside the gaming environment.”
Thinking about cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social skills reminds us that educators are not just responsible for the transmission of content and facts. Of course, this is one of the reasons that there is so much controversy over testing. Standardized tests measure only quantifiable outcomes. Educators, however, are also responsible for the non-quantifiable well-being of our students. Some of these skills are taken into account in some schools when folks talk about “character education.” But mostly, there is little curricular systematization in these areas. Still, teachers are accountable for conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills. Video games can help.

Granic, I. et al. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78.
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf

Kids who play multi-player games online are more likely to have a positive attitude toward people from another country: 62 percent of online gamers hold a favorable view of people from different cultures compared to 50 percent of non-gamers. Unlike school, where the diversity of the institution is rarely reflected by individuals’ peer groups, interactive online gaming correlates with a more diverse group of friends.
Forde, K., & Kenny, C. (2014). Online gaming and youth cultural perceptions. Integration Centre.
http://www.integrationcentre.ie/getattachment/3728d764-143f-4ece-bf9a-a0134ceda102/Online-Gaming-and-Youth-Cultural-Perceptions.aspx

Gaming in schools survey

About half of K-8 teachers say digital games have become a regular and beneficial part of today’s classroom, according to a recent survey. Responses from a random sample of 505 K-8 teachers across the country indicated that 50 percent of the teachers reported using digital games in classroom instruction for at least two days a week.Eighteen percent reported using games daily. Elementary school teachers tended to use digital games more often than middle school teachers did, with 57 percent of K-5 teachers reporting using games compared with 38 percent of middle school teachers.
 Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. (2012).Teacher attitudes about digital games in the classroom.
http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/images/presentation/jgcc_teacher_survey.pdf

Gaming Violence Study

Young adults who played video games were just as likely as nongamers to recall and be physically aroused by violent or disturbing pictures, suggesting that gaming may not desensitize young people to violence, a study found. However, researchers noted some study limitations, such as the reliance on self-reports, and cited a need for more investigation.
Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2011, Violent Video Games May Not Desensitize Kids: Study HealthyDay http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=650097

Gaming studies

Video Games Can Aid Students, Surgeons
Researchers who gathered in Boston for the American Psychological Association Convention detailed a series of studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools -- from increasing younger students' problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.
In one Fordham University study, 122 students in fifth, sixth and seventh grades were asked to think out loud for 20 minutes while playing a game they had never seen before.While older children seemed more interested in just playing the game, younger children showed more interest in setting up a series of short-term goals needed to help them learn the game.
An Ohio State University study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn't.
Uniuversity of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that World of Warcraft encouraged scientific thinking, like using systems and models for understanding situations and using math and testing to investigate problems.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hbKvyM2mVu6ANEdM7aJTl3ZoPwbwD92KQT9O1

Gaming study

Young children spending more time playing video games
Gamers are getting younger and younger, with a new report from NPD Group showing that first-, second- and third-graders are spending 75% more time playing video games than they did a year ago.
NPD Group. (2007). Amount Of Time Kids Spend Playing Video Games Is On The Rise. Pt. Washington, NY: Author.
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_071016a.html

Gaming studies

Online gaming community reaches 217 million
A global study of online gaming shows that the number of unique visitors to these sites has reached almost 217 million worldwide—a year-on-year growth of 17%. The comScore World Metrix study took into account all sites that provide online or downloadable games, excluding gambling sites. Yahoo! Games was the largest property, attracting 53 million unique visitors, with MSN Games following in second place.
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1521

Study: Teens play violent games to deal with stress, anger
A new study suggests that playing violent video games helps young people deal with their anger. The report also found that 94% of kids surveyed had played games in the prior six months, and that M-rated games were more likely to be played in groups.
Olson, C. (2007). Factors Correlated with Violent Video Game Use by Adolescent Boys and Girls
Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(1), 77-83.