School phone bans show no mental health or academic benefits

By Dr. Liji Thomas, MDReviewed by Benedette Cuffari, M.Sc.Feb 7 2025

In a recent study published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe, researchers evaluate the effects of school phone use policies on adolescent mental health.

Study: School phone policies and their association with mental wellbeing, phone use, and social media use (SMART Schools): a cross-sectional observational study. Image Credit: Dragana Gordic / Shutterstock.com

Phone use and mental health

Adolescents are currently more likely to own and use smartphones than at any time since their introduction. In fact, studies performed in Western countries estimate a daily mean of four hours of smartphone use and up to five hours on social media among adolescents. Problematic social media use, which is considered a form of behavioral addiction, is also increasingly common, with its prevalence ranging from 3% to 14% of adolescents.

Up to two hours of smartphone use every day may benefit mental health and other academic and behavioral outcomes in children. However, existing evidence suggests that increasing phone usage is associated with lower mental wellbeing among adolescents, which can negatively impact learning abilities, school behaviors, physical activity levels, and sleep duration in affected individuals.

Despite these reports, the evidence is mostly weak and heterogeneous, as it is largely based on ecological data rather than intervention studies. Furthermore, differential effects by age and sex have not been measured.

About the study

Schools that restrict phone use during school hours could have positive effects on adolescent academic and mental health outcomes. Nevertheless, the relationship between restrictive policies, phone use by adolescents, and mental health outcomes remains unclear.

The present study is the first to use a nationally representative sample of adolescent students to assess the impact of school phone use policies on mental health and academic outcomes. This cross-sectional observational study comprised 1,227 students between 12 and 15 years of age across 30 secondary schools.

Self-reported phone and social media use data were analyzed for their correlation with self-reported physical activity, mental wellbeing, sleep quality and duration, classroom disruptive behavior, and academic attainments.

Study findings

Median phone and social media use during school hours was 24 and 10 minutes across the whole cohort, respectively. Significant differences in school-based phone or social media usage were dependent on school policy.

For example, median phone usage was only 10 minutes in restrictive schools as compared to one hour in permissive schools. Children spent a median of less than two minutes as compared to 30 minutes on social media in restrictive and permissive schools, respectively. During school hours, restrictive policies led to about 40 minutes less phone time and about 32 minutes less social media use.

A greater duration of phone and social media use during school hours was weakly correlated with increased use throughout the whole day and weekend day. The average duration of phone use was 1.7 hours or more on weekdays as compared to over two hours on a weekend day. Weekend and weekday phone usage did not differ significantly between the groups.

Increased phone and social media use were associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and problematic social media use throughout the day, across the week, and on a weekend day, despite insignificant in-school use. Both phone and social media use also negatively affected physical activity and sleep, classroom behavior, academic attainment, and mental wellbeing.

Self-reported mental health, overuse of social media, and motivations for using social media did not change despite restricting in-school phone use. Likewise, no difference was observed between restricted phone use during school hours and self-reported sleep duration and quality or physical activity.

No significant difference was observed between academic outcomes or the level of disruptive classroom behavior between groups.

Overall, neither phone nor social media usage differed between the groups, thus explaining the lack of improvement observed in other outcomes. However, the association between phone/social media use and adverse effects on physical activity, sleep, classroom disruptiveness, and academic performance is noteworthy, all of which negatively interact with each other and phone use to further worsen mental health.

Conclusions

There is no evidence that restrictive school policies are associated with overall phone and social media use or better mental wellbeing in adolescents.”

Greater phone and social media use is associated with adverse effects on mental and academic status. Thus, it is crucial to devise effective policies to reduce phone use among adolescents to improve their mental wellbeing ultimately.