Impact of COVID-19-Related School Lockdowns on Adolescents’ Screen Time, Well-being, and Self-Esteem: A Longitudinal Study in Hungary
Major Dávid
Health Sciences
Dr. Nagy Zoltán Zsolt
SE NET Johan Béla előadóterem
2026-04-23 14:00:00
Interdisciplinary applied health sciences
Dr. Vingender István
Dr. Terebessy András és Dr. Fazekas-Pongor Vince Tamás
Dr. Kiss Tamás
Dr. Varga Orsolya
Dr. Szabó Dóra
Dr. Horkai Anita
Dr. Tittmann Judit
The present thesis was a secondary analysis of the data collected in the BEP. Our aim was
to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic-related school lockdowns affected the
changes in screen time, well-being, and self-esteem compared to pandemic-free
circumstances with a special focus on family structure and family communication. Two
groups of ninth graders were included in the analysis: 227 ‘pre-pandemic’ and 250
‘lockdown’ students. Linear mixed models were conducted to analyze changes. Our
findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted age-related patterns. During the
pandemic, boys showed increases in overall screen time and its individual components,
with the most notable rise in screen time spent on other activities. Girls affected by
lockdown also increased their overall screen time and across all specific activities except
for playing games, which remained unchanged. As for well-being, a less pronounced
decline was observed during the pandemic, compared to the significant decline before the
pandemic. Post hoc analysis revealed that only Item 4 from the WBI showed a notable
difference between groups. Therefore, we tested the interaction between baseline scores
on Item 4 and lockdown exposure over time. Our observation was that well-being of those
with low baseline Item 4 score (struggling with waking up) improved significantly during
the pandemic. Regarding self-esteem, there were no substantial differences over time
among boys in the two cohorts. However, girls who experienced pandemic-related school
lockdown showed a significant increase in self-esteem compared to those in the prepandemic group. Our study was the first longitudinal analysis of Hungarian adolescents’
screen time, well-being, and self-esteem trajectories across the COVID-19 lockdown. Our
results support current trends to emphasize the quality and context of digital media use as
well, not just simply the amount of screen time. Furthermore, we provided evidence that
well-being and self-esteem did not universally decline during the pandemic, which draws
attention to further investigation of possible protective factors of the lockdown period that
can be implemented even during ordinary circumstances. Family structure and family
communication play important roles in adolescents’ screen time use, well-being, and selfesteem, so health promotion strategies should take this into consideration as well.
