Wellbeing and education experts warn over-scheduling children can be as harmful as excessive screen use

A “well-intentioned” trend is leaving children anxious, burnout and emotionally-drained, warns a leading wellbeing expert and a top educator.

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Over-scheduling kids with high-pressure activities can be just as harmful to their mental health as excessive screen use, a wellbeing expert and former AFL mentor says.

“Unchecked” screen use is linked to rising rates of anxiety and depression in young people, resulting in sleep disruption, reduced physical activity and impaired emotional regulation.

But Liam Casson, who has qualifications in both psychology and education and has worked with some of the nation’s best young AFL talent, says over-committing kids removes “essential downtime” and can leave them feeling anxious, burnt out and emotionally-drained.

“The rise of digital addiction, online comparison culture and cyber-bullying has led to heightened anxiety, self-esteem issues and increased social isolation … research, including a 2023 meta-analysis in The Lancet Psychiatry, shows a direct correlation,” he said.

“Overloading them, just like excessive screen use, can also lead to stress, anxiety and disengagement.”

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Internationally-recognised student wellbeing expert Liam Casson is urging parents to lead by example when it comes to screen use. Picture: Supplied

Australian Primary Principals Association President Angela Falkenberg. Picture: Supplied

Mr Casson’s warning comes as News Corp Australia’s Great Australian Parent Survey reveals almost a third of parents withhold their children from extra curricular actives citing time and financial pressures.

While one in five reported they felt pressured by schools to sign kids up to evening or weekend sport or other activities.

Mr Casson, who has worked in player development at the Fremantle Dockers and directed wellbeing initiatives at elite all-boys’ Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, said balance – and old-fashioned play – was key.

“Parents often enrol kids in multiple activities with the best intentions … to give them the best opportunities but sometimes the best gift we can give them is time; time to think, rest … and just be kids,” the chief executive of Reset Moves, an education app offering gamified physical activities and mindfulness interventions, said.

“Filling every afternoon and weekend with activities leaves little to no time for downtime, play, or family connection … (kids) need free time, boredom and autonomy to develop emotional resilience, creativity, and self-awareness.

“We need to bring back unstructured play, creativity, and exploration … without unstructured play, kids struggle to develop problem-solving skills, independence and emotional resilience …

to build genuine friendships and emotional intelligence.”

He warns, too, that constant “performance-based activities” can create pressure to excel and trigger chronic stress and “fear of failure”.

It is a sentiment shared by Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) president Angela Falkenberg who reports a rise in parents wanting to protect their kids from setbacks.

“We do have a tension with parents who don’t want any form of failure (but) allowing kids to embrace productive failure is critical … (this includes) developmentally-appropriate risk-taking and challenging experiences,” the veteran educator said.

“Sometimes children will struggle to make friends because they haven’t learned the skills of negotiation and compromise, they expect everyone to do it ‘their way’ because it’s what they are used to.

“Mostly, parents are well-intentioned, they want their children to have everything but the gift of self-discipline cannot be underestimated.”