Digital multitasking can be detrimental to a child’s mental health, study warns

Children face a deluge of electronic information from traditional television and computers to tablets, smartphones and video games, but prior studies examining the impact of electronic media on children and adults have yield mixed results.

The questionnaires were also given to the children’s teachers and parents, but focused more their perception of how they felt the children’s electronic use impacted their mental health, the study noted.

Unlike other previous published studies which showed a correlation between total time spent on media and poorer outcomes, when this study controlled for other types of media consumption, they found total time spent on media did not contribute to mental health problems, but rather when the children used multiple devices simultaneously, like watching television while texting, this could lead to more stress, behavioral, or emotional issues.