Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Sep 5, 2025
Date Accepted: Jan 25, 2026
Screen Time, Child Depression and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world enforced stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines that amplified the use of screen time among pediatric populations. Excessive screen time may negatively impact mental health by increasing depression and anxiety.
Objective:
The first aim was to conduct a systematic review of articles examining screen time and mental health outcomes among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2023. The second aim was to determine the combined effect sizes for the associations of screen-time and depression and/or anxiety among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020-2023 and whether gender or age influenced outcomes.
Methods:
Bibliographic databases were searched from 2020-2023 including Medline (Ovid), Embase (Elsevier), Cochrane Library (Wiley), CINAHL Complete (EBSCO), and PsycINFO (EBSCO). There were a total of 6462 non-duplicate studies that were screened. Study inclusion criteria included children ages 0 to <18 years, the effects of screen time on children during the COVID-19 pandemic, screen time and depression and/or anxiety, articles written in English, and articles, including quantitative and qualitative studies, published between 2020-2023. A total of 452 articles underwent full-text review with 23 articles meeting criteria for final article extraction.
Results:
A total of 23 studies totaling 29,581 children and adolescents were included in the study. Results showed that most studies reported a positive association between screen time and depression and/or anxiety (r = 0.175, p < .0001, 95% CI [0.124, 0.226]; r = 0.157, p < .0001, 95%CI [0.0994, 0.214] respectively) during COVID-19. Meta regression revealed that screen time measured in problematic use of electronic devices had a 0.15 higher correlation with anxiety compared to screen time measured in duration of electronic device use.
Conclusions:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents with higher levels of screen time had increased depression and/or anxiety. Findings suggest the need for ongoing parent, professional, and self-monitoring of youth screen behaviors and habits as well as activities that promote social connectedness during global or national health emergencies.
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