Digital / screens

• To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more — World Health Organization (2019).

• Guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep (under 5) — World Health Organization

• Screen time and preschool children: Promoting health and development — Canadian Paediatric Society

• AAP: Media and Children — American Academy of Pediatrics

Outdoors / play / development

• Let Grow

• Effect of Nature on Children/Adolescents’ Mental Health — Lomax et al. (2024).

Digital / habits forming

• Effect of a Family Media Use Plan on media rules — Moreno et al. (2021).

• Media Use by Kids Zero to Eight (Census/report) — Common Sense Media (2025).

Outdoors / independence / resilience

• Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines — CSEP (guidelines hub).

• 24-Hour guidelines paper — Tremblay et al. (2016).

• The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology — Peter Gray (2011).

• Let Grow programs: Facts & Research.

Social media / early adolescence (high-sensitivity window)

• Social Media and Youth Mental Health: Surgeon General’s Advisory — Office of the Surgeon General (2023, full PDF).

• Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence — American Psychological Association (2023).

• National Academies consensus report on social media + adolescent mental health — NASEM

• Social media use & sleep disturbance — Pirdehghan et al. (2021).

• Social media & sleep health among adolescents in Canada — Public Health Agency of Canada (2024).

Outdoors / mental health buffers

• Nature exposure has affective benefits— Bratman et al. (2021).

• Nature experience improves affect and cognition — Bratman et al. (2015).

Social media / mental health

• The association between digital tech use and adolescent well-being is negative but small — Orben & Przybylski (2019, Nature Human Behaviour).

• The Great Rewiring— Candice L. Odgers (Nature, 2024).

• Common Sense + Hopelab: “A Double-Edged Sword” — (2024 PDF).

• CDC: Screen time associations with sleep outcomes — Zablotsky et al. (2025).

Outdoors / independence / readiness for adulthood

• Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Well-being — Gray et al. (J Pediatr, 2023).

• Nature and mental health: ecosystem service perspective — Bratman et al. (2019, Science Advances).