Nov 10, 2025
Explore how excessive digital screen time affects student well-being and academic performance. Learn practical strategies parents can adopt.
Screen Time and Student Wellbeing: Understanding the Impact & Parental Role
“Everybody else can, why can’t I? You are so unfair!”
This is one of the most common refrains parents hear when they try to set limits on smartphones (and other things!). The feeling of injustice in children is real, and for parents, the sense of isolation and guilt that follows can be equally strong.
In today’s hyper-connected world, Excessive Digital Screen Time (EDST) is not just a growing concern — it’s a reality for most students. While technology supports learning, creativity, and global awareness, it also brings significant challenges. At Diyafah International School Abu Dhabi, we believe that awareness and balance are key to nurturing resilient, focused, and emotionally healthy learners.
The Displacement Effect: What’s Being Replaced?
Every hour spent on a screen often means an hour not spent on something more productive or developmentally essential. This is known as the Displacement Effect, where screen time replaces:
- Quality sleep
- Physical activity
- In-person social interactions
- Reading, hobbies, and creative play
- Emotional regulation and reflection time
Over time, this imbalance can lead to reduced academic performance, lower test scores, and hindered social-emotional growth.
How EDST Impacts Student Wellbeing
Numerous studies, including those by Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt, reveal a growing link between screen overuse and student mental health. Here's how it impacts students:
- Increased Anxiety & Depression
- Irregular Sleep Patterns
- Decreased Attention Span
- Body Image Issues (especially via social media)
- Social Isolation
- Poor Time Management
- Passive vs. Active Screen Use
All of these contribute to a less focused, less motivated, and more emotionally fragile learning experience.
What Can Parents Do?
When parents act alone, they often face relentless pressure: “But everyone else has one!” Yet when communities of parents come together, the dynamic shifts. Parents from one school in the USA collaborated and created a pact: No smartphones before Year 10, no devices at meals or family gatherings, no screens in bedrooms at night, and no device use for less than an hour before bed.
- Digital Role Modelling: Children mirror adult behaviour. Set the tone by limiting your own screen time during meals and family time.
- Setting Screen Time Limits: Use tools like Apple Screen Time and Android Digital Wellbeing to set realistic limits.
- Creating Screen-Free Zones: Make spaces like bedrooms and dining areas tech-free.
- Tech Curfews (Before Bed): Enforce no-screen rules at least 1 hour before sleep.
- Encouraging Educational Content: Choose apps that promote creativity and emotional intelligence.
- Promoting Offline Activities: Encourage music, sports, reading, and outdoor time.
- Age-Appropriate Guidelines: Follow expert recommendations for screen time by age group.
- Open Communication: Talk about screen use, body image, and online pressure.
- Digital Literacy Education: Help your child understand the difference between entertainment and empowerment.
What Diyafah Is Doing to Support Digital Wellness
- Mindfulness & Wellbeing Sessions
- Parent Workshops on Digital Habits
- Student Counselling Support
- Balanced Tech + Traditional Learning
- Digital Literacy Curriculum for All Ages
Final Thought
Smartphones are powerful tools, but they are not neutral ones. When used without restraint, they undermine the very conditions of a flourishing childhood: sleep, friendship, learning, and joy.
So, we encourage parents to: Reach out to one another, connect, form alliances, and normalise healthier boundaries. By doing so, we not only protect our children from unnecessary anxiety, but we also gift them something deeper: the chance to live, learn, and love in the real world.
At Diyafah International School Abu Dhabi, we stand for digital balance, academic excellence, and whole-child wellbeing. Let’s build a generation that’s not only tech-savvy — but also self-aware, focused, and flourishing.