Cell phones, smartwatches and anxiety among elementary age children

Author : Elizabeth Englander

Abstract :In 2024, a study conducted on young children and their parents in two schools in Florida and Massachusetts examined cell phone and smartwatch ownership and their relationship to parents’ reported concerns about their children’s anxiety. Smartwatches have become common in elementary schools; and this study, conducted at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University, examined 61 students and 82 parents in grades 2 through 8. Results: subjects were more than twice as likely to report cell phone ownership (31.7%) compared to smartwatch ownership (14.1%). Anxiety was much more commonly reported for children owning cell phones, compared to either those who owned smartwatches, or those who owned neither

Keywords :Cell Phone and Smartwatch Ownership in Children: Associations with Parental Reports of Anxiety

Conference Name :International Conference of Social Sciences & Technology (ICSST-25)

Conference Place Stockholm, Sweden

Conference Date 2nd Oct 2025