How different kinds of screen time affect kids' mental health and brain development
Official title: Tracking the impact of screen media activity on mental health, cognition and the brain from childhood to adolescence in the longitudinal ABCD study
Funded at University of Vermont & St Agric College · NIH-11250107 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how types of screen use like video games, TV, and social media relate to children's thinking, emotions, and brain changes as they grow from about age 10 into early adulthood.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Vermont & St Agric College NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Burlington, United States) |
| Project start | December 15, 2023 |
| Project end | November 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $390,000 |
| NIH project number | 5R01MH133138-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11250107 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are children around the ABCD baseline age (about 9–10 years) and adolescents whose families can provide information about screen habits and agree to brain scans and other study measures.
✕Less likely to help
People seeking immediate clinical treatment for current mental health problems may not get direct benefit, since this is an observational, long-term research project rather than a therapy trial.
What this research studies
If your child takes part, researchers will use the ABCD study's large, multi-site database to follow kids from around age 10 through adolescence. They combine brain scans, thinking tests, surveys about screen habits, and genetic and environmental information to compare active (video games), passive (TV/videos), and mixed (social media/texting) screen activities. Because the dataset includes nearly 12,000 children with repeated measures, the team can look for long-term patterns and try to separate screen effects from family, school, and genetic influences. The project tracks changes over time rather than testing a treatment and focuses on links between screen use and mental health, cognition, and brain measures.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the findings could help families and clinicians understand which kinds of screen use are linked to mental health or brain changes and inform safer guidance and preventive strategies.
How similar studies have gone: Smaller prior studies have reported mixed findings, so this much larger, long-term ABCD analysis is relatively novel and aims to provide clearer answers.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Vermont & St Agric College
Burlington, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Chaarani, Bader — University of Vermont & St Agric College
- Study coordinator: Chaarani, Bader
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.