Folks, it’s time to replace screen time with green time
LESS screen time and more green time have once again been linked with better psychological outcomes among children and adolescents, according to a study.
Technological developments in recent decades have increased young people’s engagement with screenbased technologies (screen time), and a reduction in young people’s contact with nature (green time) has been observed concurrently.
High levels of screen time appeared to be associated with unfavourable psychological outcomes, while green time appeared to be associated with favourable psychological outcomes, said Tassia Oswald from the University of Adelaide.
Preliminary evidence suggests that green time could buffer the consequences of high screen time, meaning nature may be an underutilised public health resource to promote youth psychological well-being in a hi-tech era.
“Investment in more rigorous research is needed to explore this,” they wrote in a paper published this month in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
The combination of high screen time and low green time may affect mental health and well-being.
But research investigating the psychological impacts of screen time or green time typically considers each factor in isolation and fails to delineate the reciprocal effects of high technology use and low contact with nature on mental health and cognitive outcomes.
To address the question, Oswald and colleagues analysed the findings of 186 studies to collate evidence assessing associations between screen time, green time, and psychological outcomes (including mental health and cognitive functioning) for children and adolescents.
“This systematic review highlights that nature may currently be an underutilised public health resource, which could potentially function as an upstream preventative and psychological well-being promotion intervention for children and adolescents in a hi-tech era,” Oswald said.
“However, robust evidence is needed to guide policies and recommendations around appropriate screen time and green time at critical life stages, to ultimately ensure optimal psychological well-being for young people.”