How much time during school hours do teens spend on social media? This is what a recent study published in JAMA hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated connections between adolescent phone use during school. This study has the potential to help researchers, academic administrators, students, and parents become aware of the connections between adolescent phone use and all-around health.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data regarding smartphone app usage during school hours from 640 adolescents aged 13-18 through software installed on their phones that was approved by all participants and their parents. The goal of the study was to ascertain phone app usage during school hours, with data being obtained from September 2022 to May 2024. In the end, the researchers found that teens spent about 1.16 hours each school day on smartphones, mostly using social media apps, with higher use among older students and those from underprivileged households.
“This moves the conversation beyond anecdotes and self-reports to real-world behavior,” said Dr. Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco and lead author of the study. “Teens are not always accurate reporters of their own screen time. Objective smartphone data gives us a clearer picture of actual use.”
This study comes among a growing body of knowledge that explores teen phone use during school hours, including a 2024 study published in JAMA Network Open that also examined the amount of teen phone use during school hours, finding teens use their phone appropriately 1.5 hours per day at school. The difference is this most recent study exploring specific apps being used, as opposed to a broad examination. Studies like these also build on a growing body of research discussing how smartphone apps have a significant impact on teens’ physical and mental health.
What new insight into adolescent phone use and health will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: JAMA, EurekAlert!, JAMA Network Open
