SMART Schools Study: An evaluation of the impact of school policies restricting daytime use of smartphones and social media on adolescent mental wellbeing

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Smartphones, social media and adolescent mental wellbeing; Not Applicable

• Registration Number: ISRCTN77948572
• Lead Sponsor: niversity of Birmingham

Brief Summary

2023 Protocol article in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37407051/ (added 06/07/2023)

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-07-12
• Last Update Posted: 5 August 2024
• Study Completion: 2025-07-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Ongoing
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1170

Inclusion Criteria

Current inclusion criteria as of 24/02/2023:

1. Secondary Schools (age 11-19 years) from local authorities within a 100 mile radius from the University of Birmingham (Local Authority-maintained schools, community schools, foundation and voluntary schools, academies, and free schools and colleges)
2. School Senior Leadership Team members, school teachers and parents/carers capable of giving informed consent
3. School pupils aged 12-13 years or 14-15 years capable of giving informed consent

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Previous inclusion criteria:

1. Secondary Schools (age 11-19 years) in the West Midlands (Local Authority-maintained schools, academies and free and private schools)
2. School Senior Leadership Team members, school teachers and parents/carers capable of giving informed consent
3. School pupils aged 11-12 or 14-15 years capable of giving informed consent

Exclusion Criteria

Current exclusion criteria as of 24/02/2023:

1. Special Schools, Pupil Referral Units and Independent Schools: these schools are excluded from this project because in these schools it is expected that there would be additional influences on adolescent mental wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, that would affect comparisons of the 2 school policies. Furthermore, our website analysis identified that most special schools do not permit phone use during the school day. It also identified that independent schools have different government funding and curriculum arrangements, different phone policies for year 8 and year 10 pupils, and additional phone policies for boarding pupils.
2. Secondary schools where school characteristics could not be accessed: these schools are excluded from this project because school characteristics (e.g. admissions policy, total pupil roll size) are required for propensity score calculations.
3. Secondary schools with different phone policy for year 8 and year 10 pupils: these schools are excluded from this project because we would be unable to clearly classify these schools into our intervention or control group.
4. Secondary schools that do not have both year 8 and year 10 classes, such as newly established schools.

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Previous exclusion criteria:

Special Schools: these schools are excluded from this project because in these schools it is expected that there would be additional influences on adolescent mental wellbeing, behaviour and attainment, that would affect comparisons of the 2 school policies. Furthermore, our website analysis identified that most special schools do not permit phone use during the school day.

Study & Design

• Study Type: Observational
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Mental wellbeing measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) following data collection across 30 schools and by end of project 07/2024. Data collection will take place between 09/2022 and 02/2024