Cell Phone Ownership Linked to Lower Reading Comprehension in Elementary Students, Study Finds
A UCLA-led study suggests that simply owning a cell phone, regardless of its use during class, correlates with reduced reading comprehension skills in younger children.
Owning a cell phone may negatively impact reading comprehension skills in elementary school children, even if the device is not used during instructional time, according to a recent study by UCLA psychologists and researchers.
The findings indicate that the mere ownership of a cell phone, rather than its immediate use or potential for distraction, is associated with lower reading comprehension scores among third and sixth graders. The study analyzed a diverse group of students attending public and private schools in Los Angeles County.
Researchers administered reading comprehension tests and surveys on cell phone ownership and usage to the students. The results showed a consistent pattern: children who owned their own phones performed worse on reading comprehension tasks compared to their peers who did not own phones. This correlation persisted regardless of whether English was the primary language spoken at home.
Further analysis revealed that students who brought their phones to school achieved similar reading scores to those who left their phones at home. This observation led researchers to conclude that the lower scores were linked to the act of ownership itself, not just the presence of the device during testing periods.
"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,” said lead author and UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield. "That’s true in third grade, and it’s true in sixth grade."
An exception was noted for students from homes where English is not the primary language. For these children, starting to text at an earlier age after obtaining a phone appeared to benefit reading comprehension. By sixth grade, students from Arabic- or Spanish-speaking households who began texting in second or third grade demonstrated reading comprehension scores comparable to their peers without phones.
While the study does not directly advocate for banning cell phones in elementary schools, researchers suggested that keeping devices out of classrooms could still foster stronger social development by encouraging more face-to-face interactions. The study was prompted by a lack of research on the issue despite widespread concerns about children's screen time.