The negative impact screen time has on the mental health of screen-addicted adolescents has been well documented, but a new study out of the University of Southern Denmark shows how quickly that can be reversed.
Most young people today spend as many as eight hours scrolling their digital devices, but the study using 181 children reduced their leisure screen time — i.e. not school-related — to just three hours per week for two weeks.
The researchers noted that in that two-week span, the digital detox led to “significant improvements” in their behavior and their mental health.
“The most noticeable benefits associated with reduced screen media use was a decrease in internalizing behavioral issues and enhanced positive social interactions,” the researchers say in their study, which was published in JAMA Network Open.
“The findings provide evidence for a causal link between a short-term reduction in screen media use during leisure and improvements in children’s and adolescents’ psychological symptoms,” they added.
The study’s authors further say “the results highlight that positive mental health effects can be achieved by taking a short break from screen media use as a family.”
Incidentally, the researchers found that boys, as compared to girls, and children between 8 and 10 years old benefitted the most from the drastic digital diet.
Methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.