JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting

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ISSN:: 2561-6722
Category:: PEDIATRICS
Impact factor:: 2.1

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Screen Time, Child Depression, and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2026-04-01

Marissa Yoshizawa, Jennifer Rafeedie, Jasmyn J Tang, Bryan T Lei, Ramon Durazo-Arvizu, Danny Azucar, Sharon Hudson, Sheela Rao, Karen Kay Imagawa, Alexis Deavenport-Saman

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 to 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 to 2023 and whether gender or age influenced outcomes. Methods: Bibliographic databases were searched including MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Elsevier), Cochrane Library (Wiley), CINAHL Complete (EBSCO), and PsycINFO (EBSCO). There were a total of 6462 nonduplicate 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 and 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 (=0.175, 95% CI 0.124-0.226, <.001 and =0.157, 95% CI 0.0994-0.214, <.001, 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.

The Pattern and Characteristics of Childhood Unintentional Injuries in Abha Maternity and Children Hospital, KSA: Prospective Descriptive Study

2026-03-27

Ihab Mohammed Ibrahim Elsorogy, Niemat Mohammed Tahir Ali, Alam Eldin Musa Mustafa, Ibrahim Alhelali, Ibrahim AL-Benhassan, Ahmed Alhijab A Alhazmi, Safa Ahmed Ali Fadoul, Emad Mohammed Mosaad Mohammed, Mohammed Mahmoud Mohammed Almusdi

Background: In Saudi Arabia, unintentional injuries among children represent a prevalent and significant public health issue and severe injuries are of the leading indications for hospitalization and impairments. Objective: This study aimed to describe the pattern of unintentional trauma in children admitted to Abha Maternal and Children Hospital, South region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This study was a prospective descriptive, cross-sectional, hospital-based study, which was conducted in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Maternity and Children’s Hospital, Abha, Aseer region, Saudi Arabia. This is the central and main hospital in the region but not the only hospital receiving childhood injuries. The study period was from January 2023 to January 2024. Children’s age groups were from 0 to 12 years old. All children in the study were admitted with a diagnosis of unintentional injuries, like RTAs (road traffic accidents), falls, and other home accidents. The study included 104 children and the data collected were analyzed using SPSS (version 27; IBM Corp). Appropriate statistical tests were used for the analysis and all tests were two tailed and probability ≤.05 is considered significant. Results: The sample size of the study was 104 children. The gender distribution was 35 females (33.7 %) and 69 males (66.3 %). The patients were recruited from 18 cities in the Aseer region. About half of the patients (49%) were aged 6‐12 years. Road traffic accidents (RTA) represent the highest percentage of accidents, with 66 (63.5%) children, followed by falls from height with 38 (36.5%) patients. The most significant types of injuries were head and brain injuries 37 (35.6%), followed by chest and lung injuries 12 (11.5%). Most patients (n=62, 59.6%) remained admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for one to three days. Followed by three to seven days (27), then eight to 14 days (14). Head/brain axonal injury is also the most common injury associated with complications, followed by polytrauma. Conclusions: Road traffic accidents are a significant cause of death and disability in Saudi Arabia for all age groups. A strong association existed between the PICU admission duration and the outcome (=.02). Health and community institutes and governments should increase community education about the risks and consequences of RTA, strengthen traffic rules and laws, and punish violators.