Parent Pact study: delaying smartphones together improves children’s mental health
Independent research across more than 12,000 English primary schools finds lower recorded mental health needs where families join together to delay smartphones. And the more parents take part, the bigger the benefit.
Parents joining together to delay smartphones are making a measurable difference to children’s mental health, according to new independent research. For everyone who has signed the Parent Pact, shared it with a friend or started that conversation at the school gates, this is a moment worth celebrating.
The study, published as an Institute for Fiscal Studies working paper, examined more than 12,000 English primary schools. Where at least one in five families had signed the Pact, recorded social, emotional and mental health needs were 8.2% lower than in comparable schools where few had signed. Child psychiatric disability claims were also around 6% lower in communities with high participation.
More families, bigger benefits
One of the most exciting findings was that the benefit grew as more parents joined. Where around one in ten families had signed, recorded mental health needs were about 3% lower. At one in five, that rose to 8.2%, with benefits continuing to strengthen as participation increased.
Every family joining matters. Every conversation has the potential to bring someone else in.
That’s the idea we built the Parent Pact around. Many parents want to delay smartphones, but worry about their child being left out. Seeing other families in their class and school choosing to wait makes it easier to hold your nerve together.
The Pact helps parents delay smartphones until at least 14 and social media until 16. Launched in September 2024 on a shoestring, it now has nearly 200,000 parents signed up, with signatories in half of UK schools.
What the research tells us
Economist Gregory Veramendi, from Royal Holloway, University of London, used the Pact’s rapid spread as a natural experiment. He compared schools where at least 20% of families had signed with closely matched schools where fewer than 5% had.
The findings held across schools with similar deprivation, size and previous mental health needs, including within the same local authority. Veramendi describes this as the first causal evidence that coordinated smartphone delay improves children’s mental health.
We didn’t commission or fund the research, and only learned about it after the main results were established. Working papers are a standard way economists share new findings for scrutiny and debate, because peer-review for publication in an economics academic journal typically takes years.
What could happen if more of us joined?
If every UK primary school reached similar rates of smartphone delay, Veramendi estimates there would be roughly 15,500 fewer pupils with mental health needs at that level, around 26,500 fewer child psychiatric disability claims, and savings of more than £230m a year.
Behind those numbers are children, families and the possibility of a different childhood.
Veramendi's paper describes coordinated delay by parents as a near-zero-cost complement to school phone bans and statutory age limits.
In a world where so much of the story around children and technology can feel bleak or beyond our control, this is a powerful reminder that ordinary parents and carers, acting out of love and acting together, can push back, change the norm and make a real difference to a generation of kids.
📊 See how many families at your school have joined
📨 Share it with someone who’s wondering whether they can wait too.
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