Technology Exposure and Child Health: Wellness Impact and Social Effects: An Observational Product Registry Study (TECHWISE)

April 13, 2026 updated by: Aura

Technology Exposure and Child Health: Wellness Impact and Social Effects (TECHWISE): An Observational Product Registry Study

The goal of this study is to understand how children's mobile device usage (smartphones or tablets), including social media use and online games, are related to their mental wellness and mental health, as well as some aspects of their physical activity and sleep. This study is available to all children between the ages of 8 and 17 years and a parent/caregiver.

Researchers will compare participant mobile device usage with their survey responses on sleep, stress, mental health, and physical activity, as well as their parent/caregiver's survey responses.

Participants will:

  • run the Aura app with parental controls on their dedicated mobile device
  • complete monthly surveys
  • answer daily questions on mood, stress, sleep and physical activity

The study is fully virtual. Duration is 3 months.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Once enrolled, child participants will use their mobile devices as usual, and Aura will collect data on on-line and off-line activity, app usage, social interaction, sleep, location and activity levels.

The child participant will complete surveys on a monthly basis, including:

  • A range of questionnaires about feelings and behaviors that are associated with mental health challenges
  • Questionnaires that ask about well-being and positive feelings, including relationships with family and friends
  • Questionnaires that ask about experiences with social media and device usage
  • A questionnaire about feelings of loneliness
  • A questionnaire that asks about activity sleep

In parallel, the parent participant will complete monthly surveys about the child, including:

  • Medical history and changes
  • A range of questionnaires about feelings and behaviors that are associated with mental health challenges
  • Questionnaires that ask about well-being and positive feelings, including relationships with family and friends

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

912

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02210
        • AURA

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

US-based, English-speaking, parents and children who use mobile devices for social media and online games.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Child participants are male, female, non-binary persons, ages 8-17, inclusive
  2. Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian willing to provide informed consent; child willing to provide assent
  3. Both Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child own a mobile device that already has the Aura app or is able to install and run the Aura app, and the appropriate parental control features.
  4. Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child are willing for child to use a dedicated device for the duration of the study (ie., child cannot share device with a sibling or other family member).
  5. Multiple children from the same family are eligible to participate, provided that each enrolled child uses a dedicated device AND is able to complete outcome assessments independently, AND that parent/authorized legal guardian is able to complete assessments for each enrolled child.
  6. Both Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child willing to share data collected as part of the Aura app and related device applications
  7. Consented Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child maintain active Aura accounts throughout their study participation
  8. Consented Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child are able to follow written and verbal instructions (English) as assessed by the PI and/or study coordinator
  9. Consented Parent/Authorized Legal Guardian and child are to comply with all testing and study requirements

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Children 8-17 years old
Over 84% of children ages 8 and up have access to a mobile device (smartphone, tablet) and are active on social media. This study focuses on children ages 8-17 to better understand social media usage and how it relates to their mental well-being.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Assess ongoing technology use to explore children's online behaviors and derived health behaviors.
Time Frame: December 2025
Assess ongoing technology use via the Aura app, including social media and other online behaviors, as well as other smartphone derived health behaviors, such as sleep, location, and activity levels.
December 2025

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Examine bivariate associations between technology use features and mental wellness and mental health outcomes
Time Frame: December 2025

Given the wide range of variables that can be derived from the Aura app, and the number of assessments that will be collected, all analyses should be considered exploratory. As an initial exploration of this objective, we will conduct simple bivariate analyses between technology use variables and mental health outcomes. Example questions include:

  • Are the temporal patterns of device usage (eg., more evening or late-night use) associated with sleep or physical activity outcome measures?
  • Does digital stress mediate the relationship between device usage and mental health outcomes?
December 2025
Develop preliminary predictive models that use technology use and smartphone-derived parameters to predict point-in-time mental health outcomes
Time Frame: December 2025

Develop preliminary predictive models that use technology use and smartphone-derived parameters to predict point-in-time mental health outcomes, as well as change over time.

A wide range of analytic techniques will be used to develop and evaluate predictive models to determine whether mental health related outcomes and their change over time can be reliably predicted from device usage data. Example prediction models that may be evaluated but are not limited to the following:

Do patterns/changes in device-mediated social interactions predict presence/severity of loneliness? Are there specific patterns of keyboard data (specific search terms, text messaging sentiment, etc.) that predict changes in mood or anxiety outcomes? Related, do patterns of keyboard activity map onto daily ratings of mood/stress/anxiety? Can patterns of device usage predict changes in health care utilization over time?
December 2025

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Aura

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Scott Kollins, Doctorate in Psychology, AURA

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 15, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 13, 2026

Study Completion (Actual)

April 13, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 28, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 28, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

October 30, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 13, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20243405

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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