Recreational screen time and mental health among Canadian children and youth.

Background: Higher amounts of recreational screen time have been associated with mental ill-health among children and youth. We examined the association between meeting the 24-Hour Movement Guideline's recreational screen time recommendation of ≤ 2 hours/day and indicators of mental health among children and youth.

Methods: Using the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth (N = 26 986), associations were assessed using age- and sex-stratified multivariate logistic regression. A secondary analysis used incremental amounts of screen time to explore dose-response relationships.

Results: Female children (5-11 years) who met the recommendation were less likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder (adjusted odds ratio = 0.49; 99% CI: 0.25-0.96) or appear sad/depressed (0.60; 0.37-0.99). Female youth (12-17 years) who met the recommendation were more likely to report excellent or very good mental health, high happiness and high life satisfaction and less likely to report feeling stressed, anxious or depressed or be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Male youth who met the recommendation were more likely to report high happiness (1.74; 1.40-2.15) and high life satisfaction (1.64; 1.34-2.01) and less likely to feel stressed (0.74; 0.56-0.99) or experience psychosocial difficulties (0.79; 0.64-0.97). Some dose-response relationships were present among youth.

Conclusion: Adherence to the screen time recommendation was associated with several mental health indicators. Understanding these associations can help inform future research and guide strategies to improve mental health.