Less Screen, More Green
Researchers analyzing surveys completed by more than half a million tweens and teens in Europe and North America have concluded what should be painfully obvious to everyone:
Higher levels of screen time and lower levels of physical activity were associated with lower life satisfaction and higher psychosomatic complaints among adolescents from high-income countries. Public health strategies to promote adolescents’ mental wellbeing should aim to decrease screen time and increase physical activity simultaneously.
Denise Mann says more “green time” and less screen time help boost kids’ feelings of mental well-being:
Boys who spent about 90 minutes a day on their screens — including TV, cellphones, computers and video games — and girls who spent an hour on devices were more likely to feel sad about their lives, the surveys found. And the more screen time they logged, the worse they tended to feel.
But the more active they were, the happier they were. What’s more, physical activity helped blunt some of the negatives resulting from too much screen time.
The study, published last month in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, included boys and girls who were 11, 13, and 15 years old. Kids who were less active were more likely to complain about feeling irritable and anxious. They were also more likely to report having difficulty sleeping, and physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, and back pain.
Pediatricians recommend that teenagers limit recreational screen time to no more than two hours per day — maybe less on school days, maybe more on weekends and school breaks; if they spend a lot more time than that on their electronic devices and TVs, they probably aren’t “teenaging” right!
Even adults may be feeling the consequences of exceeding the healthy limits of screen time during the pandemic:
Excessive screen time isn’t healthy for anybody — kids or adults, added Dr. Gene Beresin, executive director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
“The more we use digital media, the less time we spend being physically active and being in nature,” said Beresin, who is also a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Read more about how screen time affects children’s health on The PediaBlog here.
source http://www.thepediablog.com/2021/09/23/less-screen-more-green/
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