Human First

Moderate evidence

Teens, screens and well-being: a small association, carefully measured

How strongly is digital technology use linked to teenagers' well-being?

Bottom line

Across three large datasets covering 355,358 adolescents, technology use was negatively linked to well-being, but the link was small: it explained at most 0.4% of the variation1.

Much of the alarm about teenagers and screens comes from large survey datasets with many variables. The researchers note that this kind of data can be analysed in so many ways that small effects get reported as significant, producing false positives and conflicting results2.

To deal with that, they ran every reasonable analysis across three datasets with 355,358 adolescents in total, a method called specification curve analysis. The association between technology use and well-being was negative but small, explaining at most 0.4% of the variation in well-being1.

Taking the broader context into account, the authors judged the effects too small to warrant policy change3.

What this does not show

  • The data are correlational and cannot show whether technology use affects well-being or the other way round.
  • Averages across hundreds of thousands of adolescents can hide very different experiences for individuals and for specific platforms or uses.

Claims and sources

  1. Across three large-scale datasets (total n = 355,358), the association between digital technology use and adolescent well-being was negative but small, explaining at most 0.4% of the variation in well-being.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Orben A, Przybylski AK (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1

  2. Large social datasets are often explored with analytical flexibility that marks small effects as statistically significant, leading to potential false positives and conflicting results; the study used specification curve analysis to address this.

    Research finding Moderate evidence

    • Orben A, Przybylski AK (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1

  3. The authors concluded that, in the broader context of the data, the effects were too small to warrant policy change.

    Research finding Limited evidence

    • Orben A, Przybylski AK (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1

Version 1. First published , updated . Approved by The Human First editors on . Sources last verified 2026-10-24. Machine-readable version.