A Large-Scale Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis

By Andrew K. Przybylski, Netta Weinstein. Psychology Science, 2017

773 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although the time adolescents spend with digital technologies has sparked widespread concerns that their use might be negatively associated with mental well-being, these potential deleterious influences have not been rigorously studied. Using a preregistered plan for analyzing data collected from a representative sample of English adolescents (n = 120,115), we obtained evidence that the links between digital-screen time and mental well-being are described by quadratic functions. Further, our results showed that these links vary as a function of when digital technologies are used (i.e., weekday vs. weekend), suggesting that a full understanding of the impact of these recreational activities will require examining their functionality among other daily pursuits. Overall, the evidence indicated that moderate use of digital technology is not intrinsically harmful and may be advantageous in a connected world. The findings inform recommendations for limiting adolescents’ technology use and provide a template for conducting rigorous investigations into the relations between digital technology and children’s and adolescents’ health.

Subfields: Education, Literature and Literary Theory, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/019d46da4b7da109b70b57c162614da5ed3dc60c

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Citations in the corpus

Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study (2018, result): “Given the curvilinear relationship between screen time and well-being found in previous research (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2017; Twenge et al., 2018b), we identified the inflection point at which the trend in well-being moved from positive to negative to inform our analyses (Simonsohn, 2017).”
Impacts of technology use on children (2019, background): “…actually be beneficial in terms of subjective mental well-being and adolescent connectedness, whereas too much IMPACTS OF TECHNOLOGY USE ON CHILDREN: EXPLORING LITERATURE ON THE BRAIN, COGNITION AND WELL-BEING Unclassified or too little might prove detrimental (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2017[26]).”
The Ethics of Realism in Virtual and Augmented Reality (2020, background): “Indeed, a study of adolescents showed that moderate use of social media is not inherently harmful and may even be beneﬁcial (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2017), so the same may be true about XR use.”
Mother, baby and Facebook makes three: does social media provide social support for new mothers? (2018, methodology): “(2012), called the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, other scholars have pointed to the positive uses of social media usage (Przybylski and Weinstein, 2017).”
Adolescent Mental Health in the Digital Age: Facts, Fears and Future Directions (2020, neutral): “…associations between mental well-being and moderate use of digital technology (which characterizes use by most adolescents), with a measurable ‘albeit small’ negative associations (less than 1% of the variation explained) for those with high levels of engagement (Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017).”
Beyond Screen Time: Identity Development in the Digital Age (2020, neutral): “…2019; Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2018; Twenge, Martin, & Campbell, 2018), whereas others find either a positive or no association (Berryman, Ferguson, & Negy, 2018; Hilgard, Engelhardt, & Rouder, 2017; Kardefelt-Winther, 2017; Orben & Przybylski, 2019a, 2019b; Przybylski & Weinstein, 2017).”