Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

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David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

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Loneliness and sedentary behaviour: time to take a stand?

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Tim Matthews, Molly Bird and Hannah Cocker mark #LonelinessAwarenessWeek with a blog looking at recent research into loneliness and sedentary behaviours in 12-15 year old children.

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How can digital technology help close the mortality gap for people with severe mental illness?

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Lina Gega from the Closing the Gap Network explores a recent review of digital technology for health promotion, which looks at opportunities to address excess mortality in people living with severe mental illness.

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Preventing mental illness, at long last

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Peter Byrne, the Public Mental Health lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, welcomes a new BMA report entitled: “Tackling the Causes – promoting public mental health and investing in prevention”.

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The cost of persuasive design: digital media use and ADHD

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Elvira Perez Vallejos and David Daley consider the findings of a recent cohort study in JAMA that looks into the association between digital media use and subsequent symptoms of ADHD in adolescents.

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Social media: good and bad experiences and the impact on depression

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Sarah Hetrick publishes her debut blog on a recent US cross-sectional study that looks at the association between positive and negative social media experiences and symptoms of depression.

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Cyberbullying research: what do we really know? #MHED2018

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Neil Humphrey kicks off #MHED2018 week here on the Mental Elf with a blog exploring some of the problems with cyberbullying research.

We’ll be blogging about youth mental health research all week and live tweeting from #MHED2018 on Thursday and Friday.

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Moderated online social therapy: relapse prevention for youth depression

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Sarah Knowles looks at a next-generation social media-based relapse prevention intervention for youth depression, explored in an Australian qualitative study looking at social networking, safety and clinical benefit.

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Man Up: using social media to tackle male suicide

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Jonny Benjamin blogs about a recent evaluation of the Australian Man Up multimedia campaign, which aimed to influence the online conversation about masculinity and suicide.

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