Abstract

The increasing incidence of screen time of all ages has generated a greater interest in the effect of screens on the human psyche. This paper looks at behavioural data of 2, 000 individuals aged 13-64 to investigate the predictability of a composite mental- health score by various modalities of screen-time, lifestyle and psychological charac- teristics. We determine, based on exploratory statistics, multivariate regression and su- pervised machine-learned models, that in as much as the influence of total screen time and social-media consumption has significant relationships with worse mental health, the effects are small when juxtaposed to those of lifestyle and emotional variables. The duration of sleep and physical activity can be called a robust protective predictor, whereas the strongest indicators of lower mental-health scores are stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression. The regularized linear models are better than tree-based and distance-based models (maximum performance: RMSE = 25.85; R2 = 0.34). All in all, the findings indicate that psychological and lifestyle variables tend to influence the development of the mental-health outcomes more significantly than the use of a screen. Not all screen-time restrictions might be effective but some specific strategies, like enhancing sleep hygiene and encouraging balanced digital habits, could be even more effective. The next generation of studies needs to combine longitudinal information and objective data of digital traces and more accurately reflect the changing trends of digital interaction.

Publication Date

12-14-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Professional Studies (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Graduate Programs & Research

Advisor

Sanjay Modak

Advisor/Committee Member

Boutheina Tlili

Campus

RIT Dubai

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