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More Screen Time, Less Happiness? New Study Links Phones to Poorer Child and Adolescent Health
A recent study in the journal Pediatric Research investigated the changes in the duration of smartphone use and problematic smartphone use (PSU), and how these have impacted the quality of life in children and adolescents in the last seven years.
The healthy development of children and adolescents is robustly dependent on physical and mental health. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which started in the spring of 2020, has led to significant social, environmental, and economic crises worldwide. In addition, several studies have shown how pandemic-related restrictions changed the daily lives of children and adolescents, which considerably strained their mental health.
In recent years, a substantial increase in the use of electronic media, especially smartphones, has been documented. A recent survey conducted in Germany revealed that the number of children between 12 and 18 years of age with smartphones increased from 62% to 94% between 2012 and 2021. Subsequently, the time spent using smartphones has significantly risen in the last few years.
Interestingly, one study indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of screen-based media by children and adolescents was associated with frustration, anger, depression, and anxiety. In addition to the positive use of smartphones, such as communication with others and searching for information, many PSUs have also been recorded. Scientists have defined PSU as excessive smartphone use that causes daily dysfunction and symptoms of behavioral addiction, including compulsivity or loss of control.
Second Measles Case Reported in Ingham County Was a False Positive, Health Officials Say
The second measles case previously reported in Ingham County was a false positive, health officials announced Wednesday. The Ingham County Health Department previously reported that a one-year-old boy had contracted measles after being exposed to another measles case, which involved a one-year-old girl who contracted the virus after out-of-state travel.
However, new testing shows that the boy’s positive test result was due to his recent measles vaccination, which is not considered an infection and can’t spread to other people, according to a release.
“When we test for measles, the first test is very sensitive and can pick up both real infections and traces of the vaccine virus,” said Dr. Nike Shoyinka, Medical Health Officer for Ingham County. “Further testing showed the symptoms were likely from an unrelated illness and the positive test result was due to a recent vaccination, not a case of measles.”
Children’s Wellbeing in World’s Wealthiest Countries Took Sharp Turn for the Worse in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic
Children in many of the world’s wealthiest countries saw marked declines in their academic performance, mental wellbeing, and physical health in the period since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis published today by UNICEF Innocenti — Global Office of Research and Foresight.
Report Card 19: Child Wellbeing in an Unpredictable World compares data from 2018 and 2022, offering a perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic and global shutdowns affected children in 43 OECD and EU countries. Since the last comparable Report Card five years ago, the Netherlands and Denmark retained their rankings as the top two places to be a child, based on measures of mental wellbeing, physical health, and skills, followed by France.
However, the report warns many countries experienced sharp declines in children’s academic skills following the pandemic — particularly foundational abilities such as reading and mathematics. School shutdowns of between three and 12 months forced many children to learn remotely and led to learning losses.
The extent to which children are behind where they should be academically is estimated to be between seven months and one year, on average, the report says. Setbacks were most severe for children from disadvantaged families.
A Quarter of Children Have a Parent With Substance Use Disorder, a Study Finds
Nearly 19 million children in the U.S. have at least one parent with a substance use disorder, according to a new study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. And a significant number of those children have a parent whose addiction is moderate or severe as opposed to mild, the study finds.
The number amounts to 1 in 4 children with a parent who has addiction. “I’m an addiction doc, and so I think about this issue all the time,” says Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, who wasn’t involved in the new study. “Even still, I was surprised at how high that percentage was. It’s just an enormous number of kids that are affected.”
“If one-quarter of kids in the U.S. have a parent with a substance use disorder, that tells us that every day in our clinics we are encountering many, if not dozens of families that are affected by substance use disorders,” he adds. “And we need to be poised and ready to help support those families.”
Urban Children Have More Pro-Allergic Immune Cells Than Rural Peers
Scientists discovered that a previously uncharacterized subset of immune cells may play a critical role in the development of allergic diseases and explain differences between urban and rural populations. The finding, published in the journal Allergy, provides new insight into how the immune system is shaped in early life-and why urban children are more prone to allergies than children from rural areas.
Led by researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Pediatrics, including M.D./Ph.D. student Catherine Pizzarello and senior author Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, M.D., Ph.D., the study uncovered a unique subpopulation of T-cells known as helper 2 (Th2) cells with distinct molecular characteristics.
T-cells are the foundational immune cells that fight off infections, but there is evidence that this specific subtype is recognizing certain foods as allergenic and attacking them, according to Jarvinen-Seppo. The study compared blood samples from urban infants with those from infants in a farming community, specifically the Old Order Mennonites (OOM) of New York’s Finger Lakes region-known for their low rates of allergies.
Researchers found that while urban infants had higher levels of the aggressive Th2 cells, OOM infants had more regulatory T-cells that help keep the immune system in balance and reduce the likelihood of allergic responses. While additional research is needed to identify a possible cause, Jarvinen-Seppo speculates that differences in the development of the gut microbiome between the two populations, and more exposure to “healthy” bacteria in rural children, may be a factor.
Postpartum Depression and Bonding: Long-Term Effects on School-Age Children
Researchers show a strong association between postpartum depression, early mother-to-infant bonding, and children’s emotional and behavioral development.
Postpartum maternal mental health and mother-to-infant bonding are well-established as critical factors in a child’s psychosocial development. However, few studies have explored the combined impact of postpartum maternal depression and early bonding experiences on emotional and behavioral difficulties during middle childhood.
A new study reveals significant associations between postpartum depression, mother-to-infant bonding, and child difficulties. Notably, secure early bonding was found to partially buffer the long-term effects of postpartum depression on child outcomes.
The development and well-being of a child are shaped by various factors, among which maternal mental health and mother-to-infant bonding play a significant role in social and emotional development.
Infants of mothers with postpartum depression often exhibit erratic temperaments and delayed cognitive development. Moreover, maternal depression can hinder the bonding process, increasing the risk of insecure attachment and subsequent developmental challenges.
While the short-term effects of postpartum depression on early child development and bonding are well-documented, less is known about how maternal depression and bonding difficulties jointly influence behavioral and psychosocial outcomes in middle childhood.
Pregnancy Health Problems Increase Kids’ Blood Pressure
Children have an increased risk of high blood pressure if their moms suffered from health problems during pregnancy, a new study says. Children had higher blood pressure if their moms had obesity, gestational diabetes or high blood pressure while pregnant, researchers reported May 8 in JAMA Network Open. The presence of just one of these pregnancy risk factors is associated with a more rapid rise in blood pressure between ages two and 18, researchers said.
For the study, researchers analyzed nearly 30 years of data from almost 12,500 mother-child pairs across the U.S. Nearly half the mothers (44%) had at least one of three risk factors during pregnancy, results show. Obesity was the most common, affecting nearly 25% of all moms, while high blood pressure disorders occurred in nearly 14% of moms and gestational diabetes in just under 7%.
Results showed that kids born to moms with at least one risk factor had systolic blood pressure that averaged about 4.9 points higher and diastolic 1.9 points higher. Systolic refers to blood pressure during a heartbeat, and diastolic to pressure between heartbeats.
