Preteens are increasingly glued to their phones—and new research suggests the health fallout is hitting early. A University of Pennsylvania-led study finds that kids who own smartphones are markedly more likely to struggle with depression, obesity, and poor sleep. The analysis, drawn from more than 10,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, tracked youth assessments from 2016 to 2022. Researchers found that owning a smartphone at age 12 was linked to 31 percent higher odds of depression, 40 percent higher odds of obesity, and 62 percent higher odds of insufficient sleep compared to peers without one. The differences persisted even after accounting for other devices, such as tablets and smartwatches. Roughly half of American kids now have smartphones by age 11, but there are no public health guidelines recommending when that first phone should arrive, despite longstanding pediatric advice on limiting screen time. Kids in the study who had smartphones were more likely to be female, Black or Hispanic, and from lower-income households. The findings, set to appear in Pediatrics, point to a problem unique to smartphones. As the authors put it, the devices “grant youth unfettered access to a world for which they may not be ready… without the discipline to effectively manage their own use.”
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