Over the past decade, and especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, screen use among children and adolescents has increased worldwide(1).
This shift is important because screen time influences daily habits such as sleep physical activity, and social interaction, all of which support healthy brain development(2).
Adolescence is a period of rapid neural change, when the brain refines and strengthens many of the pathways that support attention, planning, and emotional regulation. Experiences during this window, including the amount and type of screen use, can shape that developmental trajectory(3).
A large body of research has examined how screen time relates to mental health, particularly symptoms associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)(4).
Several studies report that higher screen use is linked to more difficulties with attention or impulse control. The screen environment delivers rapid rewards such as notifications, vivid visuals, and instant feedback. All of this can be especially stimulating for children already prone to inattention or impulsivity.
Other studies, however, find only a weak association, suggesting that screens alone are unlikely to cause ADHD. These mixed findings underline the complexity of the relationship.
Researchers have also explored how screen habits might relate to brain development. Smaller, early studies suggested that heavier screen use was associated with slower growth in regions involved in decision-making and emotional control(5).
Larger studies have not always replicated these findings, leaving the field with legitimate scientific debate(6).
These inconsistencies highlight the need for studies that follow children over time, rather than examining them at a single point.
Several hypotheses attempt to explain why screen time and ADHD symptoms might be connected. One proposes that impulsiveness draws some children to screen-based activities and that the immediate rewards of screens can further reinforce impulsive behaviors. Sleep disruption may also play a role because late-night screen use can delay or fragment sleep, and insufficient sleep is well known to impair attention.
There is also evidence that children with ADHD show delayed maturation in certain brain regions.
Interestingly, some of the brain patterns reported in heavy screen users resemble this slower developmental profile.
To better understand these relationships, researchers turned to the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a long-term project following nearly 12,000 children beginning at ages 9–10(7).
This dataset allowed investigators to examine not just correlations but developmental patterns over time(8).
Children who spent more time on screens tended to have slightly higher ADHD symptoms, and these symptoms increased modestly over the next two years. The effect was small but consistent(7).
Screen time was also linked to differences in specific brain regions. At the start of the study, children with higher screen use showed smaller volumes in the right putamen, which is a region involved in processing rewards and forming habits.
The putamen helps calibrate how strongly we respond to pleasurable or stimulating experiences(9).
When this system leans toward valuing quick, easily accessible rewards, screen-based activities can become particularly reinforcing.
Two years later, children with higher screen use showed slower development in brain regions involved in attention, language, and executive functioning. These areas help organize behavior, manage impulses, and support complex thinking. Subtle differences in their development may help explain why some children show small increases in ADHD-related symptoms(10).
One of the most important findings was that smaller cortical volume, the thickness of the brain’s outer surface, partially explained the relationship between screen time and ADHD symptoms.
More screen time was associated with slightly smaller cortical volume, which in turn was linked with slightly higher ADHD symptoms.
This pattern does not prove that screen time causes these brain differences.
Many other factors including genetics, nutrition, socioeconomic conditions, sleep, stress, and family environment could also be involved, but the findings do suggest that screen exposure and brain development are related in ways worth monitoring.
The study did not find evidence that changes in brain structure over time directly mediated the relationship between screen use and symptom development. This may reflect the study’s focus on structural MRI alone. Other research suggests that screens may influence how brain networks communicate (functional connectivity) or how brain tissue is organized at the microscopic level, which are factors not captured by structural measures.
Screen time alone is not a major driver of ADHD, but it appears to interact with brain development in subtle ways. Understanding these patterns can help families and clinicians make informed, balanced decisions about screen use during a critical period of growth.
This research adds to a growing body of evidence that screen time may be detrimental to long-term development, including how it negatively impacts sleep and more. You can learn more about what using your phone in bed before you go to sleep does to your sleep quality here.
And you can learn more about how to have a high-performance brain here.
References:
1. Trott M, Driscoll R, Irlado E, et al: Changes and correlates of screen time in adults and children during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine 48:101452, 2022
2. Marciano L, Camerini AL, Morese R: The Developing Brain in the Digital Era: A Scoping Review of Structural and Functional Correlates of Screen Time in Adolescence. Front Psychol 12:671817, 2021
3. Panjeti-Madan VN, Ranganathan P: Impact of screen time on children’s development: cognitive, language, physical, and social and emotional domains. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction 7:52, 2023
4. Zhou Y, Jiang X, Wang R, et al: The relationship between screen time and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Chinese preschool children under the multichild policy: a cross-sectional survey. BMC Pediatr 23:361, 2023
5. Takeuchi H, Taki Y, Hashizume H, et al: The impact of television viewing on brain structures: cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Cereb Cortex 25:1188-97, 2015
6. Rodriguez-Ayllon M, Derks IPM, van den Dries MA, et al: Associations of physical activity and screen time with white matter microstructure in children from the general population. Neuroimage 205:116258, 2020
7. Shou Q, Yamashita M, Mizuno Y: Association of screen time with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and their development: the mediating role of brain structure. Translational Psychiatry 15:447, 2025
8. Major D, Fazekas-Pongor V, Pártos K, et al: Effect of school lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic on screen time among adolescents in Hungary: a longitudinal analysis. Front Public Health 11:1233024, 2023
9. Ghandili M, Munakomi S: Neuroanatomy, putamen. 2019
10. Chen YY, Yim H, Lee TH: Negative impact of daily screen use on inhibitory control network in preadolescence: A two-year follow-up study. Dev Cogn Neurosci 60:101218, 2023
