1. This submission addresses:
   • • whether 14-15 year old adolescents’ screen time (time spent on video games) is related to their mental health using the data of 15000 young people from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) in 2005.
     • Possible directions for future research

The key findings are:

• • There is a weak but significant association between screen use and mental health and this appears to be a stable relationship. This study replicates another by researchers who used adolescents from 20141.
  • Light screen use (1-3 hrs/ week) was associated with good mental health
  • Current screen time use does not appear to have any long-term effect on mental health (2 years in the future)
  • Unlike screen time spent, the current type of screen use (for example, receiving offensive messages) was associated with long-term mental health (2 years in the future)

The main recommendations are:

• Recommendation 1: A guideline for good mental health should be to have light screen use with respect to video games (around 1-3 hrs/week)

• Recommendation 2: Further research into why light screen use is better for mental health with respect to video games

• Recommendation 3: Further longitudinal research on how the current use of social media and screen activities can affect future mental and physical health