Extracurricular activities help prevent negative effects of screens on young people – Science & Health

A study conducted by a Portuguese team showed that more than focusing on reducing screen time, it is necessary to promote the involvement of young people in activities that allow them to develop social and emotional skills.

One of the most discussed topics in the year of the pandemic has been the concern for children and young people’s exposure to screens. Since everyone was confined to their homes and through screens it was to attend classes, talk to their family and friends and even play sports or other activities. But a study by a Portuguese team shows that attending extracurricular activities helps reduce the negative effects of excessive screen use.

“The main finding is that the decrease in the perceived negative impact of youthful use of electronic media (ECM) is further determined by the frequency of extracurricular activities (such as playing sports, regardless of how long they have been in), due to the reduced time of MCE use,” she explains. Luisa Campos, one of the study’s authors. These conclusions were published in an article in the scientific journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The investigation conducted by the team human development research center In the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the Catholic University of Porto, it was based on the perceptions of 729 young people aged between 11 and 17 years and their parents, in a total of 1413 participants. The data was collected before the pandemic arrived in March 2020, says Pedro Dias, one of the study’s authors.