School phone policies not silver bullet for student outcomes

Students who attend schools where smartphones are banned report missing out on sleep to make up for ‘wasted time’ on their phones, but benefit from more face-to-face socializing during the school day, as a new UK study reveals a mixed picture of how phones are affecting secondary school students’ experiences. In the latest SMART Schools Project study published in Social Sciences and Medicine, a team of academics from the University of Birmingham conducted in-depth research with seven schools to identify how smartphone policies influence student wellbeing.