Children who own smartphones score lower on reading comprehension tests, regardless of whether they bring their phones to school, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The study, published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, found that reading test performance did not change based on whether a phone was on a child’s desk, stored out of sight, or left at home. The determining factor was ownership alone.
Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor and the study’s lead author, said device ownership was the key variable, independent of the age at which a child received a phone or what grade they were in.
The researchers assessed a large and diverse group of students at public schools in Los Angeles. Children with and without phones read several texts and answered comprehension questions, and also completed surveys about their technology habits. The negative link between phone ownership and lower reading scores held even when students from English-speaking and non-English-speaking households were analyzed separately.
An exception for non-English-speaking homes
The study identified one exception. For students from Spanish-speaking or Arabic-speaking households, texting at an early age significantly improved reading comprehension. Over time, those students reached the same reading scores as peers who did not own phones, suggesting that reading and writing through messages helps close the language gap.
Although the findings suggest that school phone bans would not directly raise reading comprehension scores, experts noted that such restrictions remain beneficial for promoting social skills, emotional development, and face-to-face interaction between students and teachers.
