Younger persons are rising up in an more and more digital world, with 95% of 12- to 15-year-olds within the UK proudly owning a smartphone (Statistica, 2024) and 92% utilizing social media (Ofcom, 2024). Issues have emerged concerning the potential results of extreme smartphones and social media use on younger folks’s psychological well being, together with hyperlinks to poorer melancholy, anxiousness, and poorer sleep (Demirci et al., 2015; Odgers & Jensen, 2020; Yang et al., 2020). Nevertheless, analysis findings stay blended and inconsistent. A recent Mental Elf blog by Amanda Sabo and Louise La Sala highlighted that a lot stays unknown concerning the relationship between social media and psychological well being, partly because of how social media use is measured in analysis.
Just lately, extra nations have launched faculty smartphone bans, with one in 4 nations implementing legal guidelines prohibiting smartphone use throughout faculty hours (Unesco, 2023). Regardless of this, no peer-reviewed research have examined the impression of such insurance policies on wellbeing, sleep, and bodily exercise.
This research by Goodyear and colleagues (2025) aimed to match younger folks’s psychological wellbeing between colleges that ban smartphone use and those who permit it. A secondary goal was to evaluate variations in smartphone and social media use throughout faculty hours, over 24 hours and throughout seven days, and study how use throughout these durations associated to psychological wellbeing.
92% of 12- to 15-year-olds within the UK use no less than one social media app or web site, indicating simply how widespread this use of know-how is amongst younger folks.
Strategies
A complete of 325 colleges had been initially approached for this research, together with 229 restrictive colleges (the place leisure cellphone use is prohibited) and 96 permissive colleges (the place leisure cellphone use is allowed). Stratified sampling matched the 2 teams by area, faculty measurement and revenue deprivation index, with no exclusion standards to minimise choice bias.
Pupils accomplished an preliminary on-line survey to measure psychological wellbeing and associated outcomes. Psychological wellbeing was assessed utilizing the Warwick-Edinburgh Psychological Effectively-Being Scale (WEMWBS; scores vary from 14 to 70). Psychological wellbeing was reassessed 4-8 weeks later to account for any fluctuations in psychological well being throughout that point. Lecturers reported on pupils’ classroom behaviour and attainment, and pupils reported on smartphone and social media use by way of cellphone information and self-report. Nevertheless, because of considerations over accuracy of the cellphone information, solely self-reported cellphone use was used for the primary evaluation. Contributors additionally wore a tool monitoring sleep and bodily exercise.
Linear regression analyses examined the impression of faculty cellphone coverage kind on psychological wellbeing, associated outcomes, and smartphone, and social media use.
Outcomes
A complete of 1,127 contributors (aged 12-15) had been recruited from 30 colleges, together with 20 restrictive colleges and 10 permissive colleges. In restrictive colleges, imply age was 13.97 years (SD = 1.07 years), 51.79% of contributors had been feminine, and 72.07% had been white. In permissive colleges, imply age was 14.24 years (SD = 1.14 years), 45.93% of contributors had been feminine and 64.62% had been white.
Variations in outcomes between colleges
The imply rating for psychological wellbeing throughout all colleges was 47 (SD = 9). No vital variations had been present in adolescent psychological wellbeing between pupils in restrictive versus permissive colleges (restrictive colleges: M = 48, SD = 9; permissive colleges: M = 46, SD = 9; adjusted imply distinction = -0.48, 95% CI [-2.05 to 1.06], p = 0.62). This discovering remained constant even after controlling for variables comparable to intercourse, yr group, ethnicity, and revenue deprivation index, and when contemplating solely the primary wellbeing evaluation.
Moreover, no vital variations had been discovered between teams for self-reported anxiousness or melancholy, in addition to teacher-reported disruptiveness and attainment in English and Maths. Even when limiting the evaluation to colleges the place telephones had been fully inaccessible to pupils in the course of the faculty day (n = 4) and when controlling for weekend cellphone use, no vital variations between teams emerged on these outcomes. Collectively, these findings point out that kind of faculty cellphone coverage (restrictive vs permissive) doesn’t considerably affect pupils’ psychological wellbeing or different outcomes like anxiousness, melancholy, or tutorial efficiency.
Variations in smartphone use between colleges
Relating to cellphone use, pupils in restrictive colleges spent considerably much less time on telephones (adjusted imply distinction = -0.67, 95% CI [-0.92 to -0.43], p <.001) and social media (adjusted imply distinction = -0.54, 95% CI [-0.74 to -0.36], p <.001) throughout faculty hours in comparison with pupils in restrictive colleges. Total cellphone use on weekdays, weekends, and throughout the week was larger in restrictive colleges, though these variations weren’t statistically vital. Almost all pupils reported utilizing their telephones for greater than 1.7 hours on weekdays and greater than 2 hours on weekends.
Associations between smartphone use and outcomes
Though faculty cellphone insurance policies weren’t considerably linked to psychological wellbeing, throughout all contributors, larger smartphone and social media use was considerably related to a number of unfavourable outcomes together with:
- Lowered psychological wellbeing
- Will increase in anxiousness, melancholy and problematic social media use
- Will increase in disruptive classroom behaviour
- Poorer attainment in English and Maths
- Decreased bodily exercise
- Lowered sleep effectivity and sleep length.
Though faculty cellphone insurance policies weren’t considerably linked to psychological wellbeing in younger folks, larger cellphone and social media use was related to a number of unfavourable outcomes.
Conclusions
- Total, these findings from Goodyear et al. (2025) recommend that restrictive faculty cellphone insurance policies don’t enhance adolescent psychological well being, consideration, or behaviour in comparison with permissive faculty cellphone insurance policies.
- Furthermore, whereas such insurance policies scale back cellphone use throughout faculty hours, they don’t considerably scale back general cellphone or social media use outdoors of faculty (e.g., on weekdays and weekends).
- On this research, it was cellphone and social media use outdoors of faculty that was linked to poorer psychological well being, together with anxiousness, melancholy and sleep disturbances.
- Subsequently, interventions geared toward bettering adolescent wellbeing ought to concentrate on lowering cellphone and social media use past faculty hours, reasonably than solely limiting in-school utilization.
These findings from Goodyear et al. (2025) point out that interventions aiming to enhance adolescent wellbeing ought to concentrate on lowering cellphone and social media use past faculty hours, reasonably than solely limiting in-school utilization.
Strengths and limitations
This research is the primary to guage the impression of faculty cellphone insurance policies on psychological well being, wellbeing, and different well being and schooling outcomes in a nationally consultant UK pattern. Using a nationally consultant pattern enhances the exterior validity of the research, that means that these findings are possible generalisable to all UK colleges.
One other key energy of the research is its sturdy statistical evaluation, together with sensitivity analyses. Sensitivity analyses are robustness checks that discover how outcomes change when completely different features of the evaluation are adjusted. Since all sensitivity analyses returned related outcomes, this implies that the findings are constant and dependable, not influenced by confounding variables or biases, and additional will increase the credibility of the conclusions. The research was additionally publicly registered within the Worldwide Commonplace Randomised Managed Trial Quantity (ISRCTN) registry, which helps to scale back the danger of bias.
Nevertheless, a number of limitations ought to be famous. First, the research relied on subjective self-reports of cellphone and social media use, which can be influenced by desirability bias as extreme and/or problematic smartphone and social media use is usually labelled as socially undesirable behaviour (Coyne et al., 2023). Extra sturdy measures of display time embody instruments for monitoring smartphone and social media use comparable to iPhone’s Display Time and Android’s Digital Wellbeing integrations (Coyne et al., 2023). Though the authors collected cellphone information, they didn’t analyse this because of considerations over accuracy.
Moreover, solely the frequency of smartphone and social media use was assessed, reasonably than the content material or kind of actions engaged in, which would offer extra nuanced perception into the results of smartphone and social media use on psychological wellbeing. For instance, several types of cellphone use (e.g., looking social media, participating in on-line gaming, or normal web use) could have distinct impacts on psychological well being. Problematic use of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have been linked to poorer psychological well being in adolescents aged 16-18 (Carter et al., 2024). Subsequently, future research ought to use validated goal measures of display time comparable to cellphone integrations/apps alongside subjective studies and contemplate the content material of cellphone/social media use.
One other limitation of the research is its cross-sectional design, which makes it troublesome to attract conclusions about causality. As information had been collected at one timepoint, it’s not doable to find out whether or not faculty cellphone insurance policies affect psychological wellbeing or whether or not colleges with sure wellbeing profiles usually tend to undertake specific cellphone insurance policies. Longitudinal analysis is due to this fact wanted, ideally following college students earlier than and after a faculty cellphone coverage is introduction, to look at modifications in psychological wellbeing.
Solely frequency of cellphone and social media use was assessed on this research, not the content material or kind of actions younger folks had been participating in, which would offer extra nuanced insights into the results on psychological wellbeing.
Implications for apply
This research highlights an absence of proof supporting faculty insurance policies that prohibit cellphone use as efficient measures to enhance adolescents’ psychological, bodily, or tutorial outcomes. Nevertheless, unfavourable associations had been discovered between elevated cellphone and social media use outdoors of faculty and poorer psychological well being, highlighting the necessity for broader methods past faculty insurance policies to enhance adolescent wellbeing.
The authors argue that college cellphone insurance policies ought to be a part of a holistic strategy geared toward lowering general cellphone and social media use, each out and in of faculty. This strategy might contain instructing digital well being behaviours within the PSHE curriculum, comparable to setting every day app cut-off dates, lowering display time an hour earlier than bedtime, and protecting telephones out of the bed room at evening. Colleges might even contemplate non permanent cellphone bans as instructional instruments to focus on the advantages of “detox” approaches. Proof means that such bans can scale back problematic utilization tendencies (Brailovskaia et al., 2023), providing a possible efficient technique for behavioural change.
This research additionally opens avenues for future analysis. One key avenue includes inspecting the broader psychological well being impacts of smartphones and social media, together with the impacts on social connectedness, loneliness and bullying. In our current feasibility research as a part of the Channel 4 documentary “Swiped”, we didn’t observe vital declines in social connectedness or elevated emotions of loneliness, suggesting non permanent abstinence could enhance wellbeing with out harming social bonds.
Future analysis must also assess the practicality and impression of interventions that promote wholesome digital habits at each faculty and residential. Constructing on our preliminary findings from our feasibility research, we are actually conducting a follow-up randomised managed trial to evaluate the results of non permanent smartphone abstinence (in comparison with regular use) throughout completely different adolescent age teams. Crucially, we’re following up contributors two months after the ban to evaluate the longevity of any modifications and whether or not more healthy habits, like these talked about above, are sustained.
In conclusion, efforts to scale back smartphone and social media use ought to contemplate each in-school and out-of-school behaviours. Short-term abstinence designs could function one instrument for behaviour change, but additionally as a approach to increase consciousness of digital wellbeing dangers. Nevertheless, a key query transferring ahead will likely be to find out whether or not holistic interventions can produce lasting, optimistic outcomes for adolescent wellbeing.
Given rising considerations concerning the impression of cellphone use on adolescents’, conducting and disseminating speedy and rigorous analysis is crucial for informing instructional coverage.
Assertion of pursuits
I work on research inspecting the impression of non permanent smartphone and social media abstinence on adolescents’ sleep, psychological well being, and social and cognitive growth.
Hyperlinks
Main paper
Goodyear, V. A., Randhawa, A., Adab, P., Al-Janabi, H., Fenton, S., Jones, Okay., Michail, M., Morrison, B., Patterson, P., Quinlan, J., Sitch, A., Twardochleb, R., Wade, M., & Pallan, M. (2025). School phone policies and their association with mental wellbeing, phone use, and social media use (SMART Schools): A cross-sectional observational study. The Lancet Regional Well being – Europe, 101211.
Different references
Brailovskaia, J., Delveaux, J., John, J., Wicker, V., Noveski, A., Kim, S., Schillack, H., & Margraf, J. (2023). Finding the “sweet spot” of smartphone use: Reduction or abstinence to increase well-being and healthy lifestyle?! An experimental intervention study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Utilized, 29(1), 149–161.
Carter, B., Payne, M., Rees, P., Sohn, S. Y., Brown, J., & Kalk, N. J. (2024). A multi-school study in England, to assess problematic smartphone usage and anxiety and depression. Acta Paediatrica, 113(10), 2240–2248.
Coyne, P., Voth, J., & Woodruff, S. J. (2023). A comparison of self-report and objective measurements of smartphone and social media usage. Telematics and Informatics Stories, 10, 100061.
Demirci, Okay., Akgönül, M., & Akpinar, A. (2015). Relationship of smartphone use severity with sleep quality, depression, and anxiety in university students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 4(2), 85-92.
Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: facts, fears, and future directions. Journal of Little one Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 336–348.
Ofcom. (2024). Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report.
Sabo, A., & La Sala, L. (2025). Critical lack of evidence about social media use and youth mental health in clinical populations. The Psychological Elf.
Statistica. (2024). UK: Children owning mobile phones by age 2024.
Unesco. (2023). Global education monitoring report 2023: Technology in education—A tool on whose terms?
Yang, J., Fu, X., Liao, X., & Li, Y. (2020). Association of problematic smartphone use with poor sleep quality, depression, and anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Analysis, 284, 112686.
