Teen Mental Health Crisis May Need More Than School Smartphone Bans: Study

A major new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is raising fresh questions about whether banning smartphones in schools can really improve teenagers’ mental health. The research, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Survey of Children’s Health and supported by findings from institutions such as the Pew Research Center and JAMA Pediatrics, suggests that the early effects of school smartphone bans are far less dramatic than many policymakers expected.

The study comes at a time when concern over youth mental health is growing rapidly across the United States. Rates of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and emotional distress among teenagers have risen sharply over the past decade, while smartphone and social media use have become almost constant parts of everyday life for young people.

Rising Anxiety Among Teenagers

The paper highlights how serious the mental health situation has become for American teenagers. National surveys show that feelings of sadness and hopelessness among adolescents have increased steadily since 2013. By 2023, more than half of teenage girls and over one quarter of boys reported experiencing persistent sadness.

At the same time, screen use has exploded. Nearly half of U.S. teenagers now say they are online “almost constantly.” Researchers and public health officials increasingly worry that heavy smartphone use is linked to sleep problems, cyberbullying, loneliness, reduced concentration, and social comparison.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and other researchers argue that smartphones and social media have fundamentally changed childhood by replacing face-to-face interaction with constant digital engagement. Many experts believe this shift may be contributing to the worsening mental health crisis among young people.

Why Schools Started Banning Smartphones

In response, many U.S. states have introduced school smartphone bans. By 2025, more than 26 states had adopted some form of restriction on phone use during school hours.

Some schools only ban phones during lessons, while others use strict “bell-to-bell” policies where students must lock their phones away for the entire school day using special magnetic pouches. Florida introduced one of the first statewide bans in 2023, followed by Indiana and Louisiana in 2024. Louisiana adopted the strictest version of the policy.

The idea behind these bans is simple: if students spend less time on phones during school hours, they may become calmer, more focused, and emotionally healthier. Public support has been strong, with surveys showing that most American adults support banning smartphones in classrooms.

What the Study Actually Found

To test whether these bans work, economist Henry Saffer analyzed data from more than 167,000 children aged 11 to 17 between 2016 and 2024. The study examined changes in screen time, concentration, emotional well-being, school engagement, friendships, and bullying after smartphone bans were introduced.

The results were surprising. The study found no clear evidence that school smartphone bans significantly improved students’ mental health or reduced overall screen time.

Measures such as concentration, emotional calmness, curiosity, homework completion, and ability to make friends showed little meaningful improvement after the bans took effect. In some cases, the changes were so small that researchers could not determine whether the bans had any real impact at all.

One possible reason is that teenagers may simply shift their phone use to evenings and weekends. Even if phones are removed during school hours, students still have access to social media and online entertainment for the rest of the day.

A Complex Problem Without Easy Solutions

The study also argues that smartphones may not be the only cause of declining youth mental health. Academic pressure, family stress, economic uncertainty, and limited access to mental health care may all be contributing to rising emotional problems among teenagers.

In some cases, struggling teenagers may actually turn to online spaces for comfort, friendship, or emotional support. That means the relationship between smartphones and mental health is likely more complicated than many public debates suggest.

Saffer concludes that school smartphone bans alone are unlikely to solve the youth mental health crisis. Instead, the paper suggests that improving adolescent wellbeing may require a broader strategy that includes better mental health services, digital literacy education, emotional resilience training, and stronger regulation of social media platforms.