Teenagers who watch screens in free time 'do worse in GCSEs'
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Version 0 of 1. Teenagers who spend hours on screens during their free time, either watching TV, playing computer games or surfing the internet, appear to achieve lower grades at GCSE, according to a study published on Friday. Research from Cambridge University suggests that 14-year-olds who spend an hour a day on screens during their leisure time score nine fewer points at GCSE when the sum of their grades is calculated – the equivalent of dropping two grades from a B to a D. Two extra hours results in 18 fewer points at GCSE. The length of time children spend watching screens is frequently a battleground in families, with parents increasingly powerless to control their children’s viewing – which has moved beyond TVs and computers, on to smart phones and iPads. Related: Secret Teacher: I've no option but to resign after disappointing GCSE results But on the strength of their findings, the authors suggest that parents who are concerned about their children’s GCSE results should consider limiting their time on screens. The researchers, led by the Medical Research Council epidemiology unit at Cambridge, studied 845 pupils from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. They measured levels of activity and sedentary behaviour at the age of 14, then compared this with their performance at GCSE. Additionally, they asked pupils to assess the amount of time they spent doing homework and reading for pleasure. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the study – published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity – found that pupils who did an extra hour of daily homework and reading performed significantly better at GCSE than their peers, achieving on average 23.1 more GCSE points. A child’s level of physical activity appeared to have no effect – good or ill – on academic performance, though previous studies have found a beneficial effect in some subjects. Researchers also analysed time spent on different screen activities, and found that TV viewing was the most damaging. “Spending more time in front of a screen appears to be linked to a poorer performance at GCSE,” said report author Kirsten Corder, of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (Cedar) at Cambridge. “We only measured this behaviour in year 10 [pupils aged 14 and 15], but this is likely to be a reliable snapshot of participants’ usual behaviour, so we can reasonably suggest that screen time may be damaging to a teenager’s grades. Related: Commodore Amiga at 30 – the computer that made the UK games industry “Further research is needed to confirm this effect conclusively, but parents who are concerned about their child’s GCSE grades might consider limiting his or her screen time.” Corder said she was “surprised” by the size of the impact on GCSE results. “For each hour of screen, to get nine points lower is quite a big difference,” she said. At the same time, she and her co-authors acknowledged that technology had moved on exponentially since they initiated their study in 2005 and called for further research to catch up with rapidly changing screen habits. Esther van Sluijs, also from Cedar, added: “We believe that programmes aimed at reducing screen time could have important benefits for teenagers’ exam grades as well as their health. “It is also encouraging that our results show that greater physical activity does not negatively affect exam results. “As physical activity has many other benefits, efforts to promote physical activity throughout the day should still be a public health priority.” The impact of screens and new technology on children has become a subject of intense debate in recent years. One of the chief concerns is the possible health implications of sedentary viewing at home, but new technology is also increasingly being used in the classroom to aid learning. Tom Bennett, who was appointed by the government to lead a working party to help teachers improve behaviour in schools, recently said widespread use of tablets in classrooms was having an unhelpful impact – with pupils using them to “surf the net, find photos of Kim Kardashian and Jessie J and hurl online insults at each other”. He told the Sunday Times: “Schools are increasingly giving kids iPads, even primary schools. I am not a fan of that.” |