When Screen Time Steals the Calm: How Mobile Use Raises Anxiety in Lebanese Students
What if the hours children spend scrolling every day are quietly shaping how anxious they feel — and even how well they perform in school?
Using a cross-sectional dataset of Lebanese students aged 8–14, this analysis explores the relationship between daily screen time, anxiety, gender, outdoor play, and academic performance.
1. How Much Screen Time Do Children Get?
Most students spend 2–4 hours/day on mobile or tablet devices, but a noticeable group reaches 5–7 hours. This suggests a segment exposed to high digital consumption.
2. Anxiety Levels Are Widely Spread
Anxiety scores range from 10 to 100, with most students clustering around 40–55. A significant minority shows severe anxiety.
3. More Screen Time = More Anxiety
A clear positive correlation emerges:
As screen time increases, anxiety rises across both boys and girls.
This relationship remains strong even when controlling for age.
4. Gender Differences Are Small but Present: Girls show slightly higher anxiety and slightly higher screen time. But the trend lines for both genders are almost identical — meaning screen time, not gender, is the main driver.
5. Anxiety Reduces Academic Performance: Students with higher anxiety tend to have lower academic scores, with a noticeable decline past anxiety scores of 60.
6. Screen Time Reduces Academic Performance (Slightly): More screen time is associated with lower grades, although the effect is weaker compared to anxiety.
7. Outdoor Play Offers a Small Protective Effect: More outdoor playing hours slightly reduce anxiety, suggesting a helpful intervention.
Conclusion
Across the dataset, a consistent pattern emerges:
More screen time → higher anxiety → weaker academic performance.
Encouraging even small reductions in daily screen use — or adding more outdoor time — can help protect children’s mental well-being.