Smartphones, social media and adolescent mental wellbeing Other
Conditions
Interventions
Current interventions, as of 24/02/2023:
This is a natural experimental study using mixed methods to compare the impact of school daytime restrictions on smartphone use on mental wellbeing in 2 seco
Sponsors
University of Birmingham
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
12 Years to 15 Years
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Current inclusion criteria as of 24/02/2023: 1. Secondary Schools (age 11-19 years) from local authorities within a 100 mile radius from the University of Birmingham (Local Authority-maintained schools, community schools, foundation and voluntary schools, academies, and free schools and colleges) 2. School Senior Leadership Team members, school teachers and parents/carers capable of giving informed consent 3. School pupils aged 12-13 years or 14-15 years capable of giving informed consent _____ Previous inclusion criteria: 1. Secondary Schools (age 11-19 years) in the West Midlands (Local Authority-maintained schools, academies and free and private schools) 2. School Senior Leadership Team members, school teachers and parents/carers capable of giving informed consent 3. School pupils aged 11-12 or 14-15 years capable of giving informed consent
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Current exclusion criteria as of 24/02/2023: 1. Special Schools, Pupil Referral Units and Independent Schools: these schools are excluded from this project because in these schools it is expected that there would be additional influences on adolescent mental wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, that would affect comparisons of the 2 school policies. Furthermore, our website analysis identified that most special schools do not permit phone use during the school day. It also identified that independent schools have different government funding and curriculum arrangements, different phone policies for year 8 and year 10 pupils, and additional phone policies for boarding pupils. 2. Secondary schools where school characteristics could not be accessed: these schools are excluded from this project because school characteristics (e.g. admissions policy, total pupil roll size) are required for propensity score calculations. 3. Secondary schools with different phone policy for year 8 and year 10 pupils: these schools are excluded from this project because we would be unable to clearly classify these schools into our intervention or control group. 4. Secondary schools that do not have both year 8 and year 10 classes, such as newly established schools. _____ Previous exclusion criteria: Special Schools: these schools are excluded from this project because in these schools it is expected that there would be additional influences on adolescent mental wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, that would affect comparisons of the 2 school policies. Furthermore, our website analysis identified that most special schools do not permit phone use during the school day.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Mental wellbeing measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) following data collection across 30 schools and by end of project 07/2024. Data collection will take place between 09/2022 and 02/2024 | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Data collection will take place between 09/2022 and 02/2024 1. Anxiety symptoms over the previous two weeks, measured using Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7; measured over the past 2 weeks) 2. Depressive symptoms over the previous two weeks, measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9; measured over the past 2 weeks) 3. Addictive Use using the Problematic Social Media use Scale (measures mood regulation, cognitive preoccupation, compulsion, displacement). 4. Sleep (bed time, rise time, total time in bed and sleep efficiency [% of time in bed asleep vs awake] collected from accelerometers over 7 days 5. Physical activity (MVPA and overall PA) collected from accelerometers over 7 days 6. Attainment collected from form tutor (or equivalent) using an adapted Progress 8 questionnaire to determine whether students are working at expected grade in English and Maths 7. Disruptive Classroom Behaviour collected from form tutor (or equivalent) using the Pupil Behaviour Questionnaire | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Contacts
Public ContactVictoria Goodyear
Outcome results
None listed