Screen time leads to emotional distress in children.

NEW YORK (HealthDay News)—There may be a “vicious cycle” between screen time and children with problems, according to a new evidence review.

Screen time, especially video games, appears to contribute to emotional turmoil among children, researchers say. These children with anxiety disorders are more likely to turn to screens to feel better, according to a study published June 9 in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

“Children are spending more and more time in front of screens, from entertainment to homework to texting friends,” said senior researcher Michael Noetel, an associate professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia, in a press release.

“We found that increased screen time can lead to emotional and behavioral problems, and children with these problems often turn to screens to cope,” Noetel said.

Her team gathered data from 117 studies involving more than 292,000 children from around the world. All included an analysis of children's screen use, as well as their emotional health and behavior.

The results show that the more children engage with screens, the more likely they are to suffer from problems such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and hyperactivity.

In turn, children with these problems were more likely to turn to screens as a coping mechanism, the researchers found.

Video games were associated with a higher risk of emotional problems compared to educational or recreational screen use, the results show. Similarly, children with emotional or behavioral problems were more likely to turn to games to cope.

Compared with younger children, children ages 6 to 10 were more vulnerable to emotional problems associated with increased screen use, the researchers found.

Girls were more likely to develop emotional problems with increased screen use, while boys were more likely to increase their screen use in response to emotional or behavioral problems.

By pooling this vast amount of data, Noetel said researchers are getting closer to establishing a direct causal relationship between screen time and emotional problems in children, although that link has yet to be firmly proven.

“It’s the closest we can get to causal evidence without randomly cutting off screens for thousands of children,” Noetel said. “But even so, we can’t completely rule out other factors, such as parenting style, that could influence both screen use and emotional problems.”

At a glance

Advice

The findings suggest that parents should be careful about which screens they allow and how much time their children spend using them.

Signal to attend to

Parents might also consider excessive screen use as a potential sign that their child is struggling with emotional issues, and offer support as well as restrictions.