Massive impact cellphones are having on kids revealed: study

Giving your grade-schooler a cellphone could be hurting their ability to read—even if the device never leaves the house, according to a new study.

Researchers found elementary school children who owned their own phones consistently scored worse on reading comprehension tests than classmates without one, with the gap showing up whether the devices were sitting on a desk, stashed in a backpack or left at home.

The findings—led by a team of UCLA psychologists and researchers—suggest the problem isn’t children sneaking glances at their screens during class — it’s simply owning a cellphone in the first place.

“We found that there’s no age at which you can give a child a phone that’s better or worse for reading comprehension, so it’s just having a phone at all,” lead author and UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield said. “That’s true in third grade, and it’s true in sixth grade.”

Researchers set out to determine whether cellphone ownership itself was linked to weaker reading skills among elementary school students, noting there has been surprisingly little research examining the issue despite growing concern over children’s screen use.

The team studied a culturally and linguistically diverse group of third- and sixth-grade students attending public schools in Antelope Valley and Coptic Church schools in Los Angeles County.

Some children owned phones while others did not, and some brought them to school while others left them at home.

Students read short passages before answering questions designed to measure their reading comprehension. They also completed surveys about cellphone ownership and how they used their devices.

The results revealed a clear pattern—children with their own phones consistently scored lower on reading comprehension tests than those without one, regardless of whether English was the primary language spoken at home.

Researchers also found virtually no difference between students who had their phones with them during testing and those who left them at home, suggesting the lower scores weren’t simply the result of classroom distractions.

“The children who brought their phones to school had the same reading scores as children who did not have phones at school that day. So, it’s ownership of a phone, not the immediate presence of one, that correlates with poorer reading comprehension at the elementary school level,” Greenfield said.

However, there was one notable exception.

Students from homes where English was not the primary language actually fared better if they started texting at a younger age after getting a phone.

“If you have a phone and if you’re from a family where English is not spoken at home, it’s better for reading comprehension to start texting earlier rather than later,” Greenfield explained.

“In fact, when students from Arabic- or Spanish-speaking homes began to text in second or third grade, by sixth grade they had reading comprehension scores similar to their peers who still did not have phones.”

While the findings suggest banning cellphones in elementary schools is unlikely to improve reading comprehension on its own, researchers said keeping the devices out of classrooms could still help children develop stronger social skills by encouraging more face-to-face interaction with classmates and teachers.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters