Owning a cellphone may be quietly dragging down how well some Los Angeles County kids understand what they read, according to new UCLA research. Elementary school students who had their own phones scored lower on reading comprehension tests than classmates without phones, and it did not matter whether the devices were sitting out on the desk or tucked away. The pattern is adding fuel to local arguments over phones in schools and when parents should cave to the first "Can I get a phone?" request.
Study design and main finding
The study, published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, tested students by having them read short passages and answer follow up questions, then compared results for children who owned phones with those who did not. Researchers worked with culturally and linguistically diverse third and sixth graders in Antelope Valley public schools and Coptic church schools in Los Angeles County, and asked students about both ownership and use.
The authors report a statistically significant link between owning a phone and lower reading comprehension scores, regardless of whether phones were visible during testing. In other words, the key factor here was whether a child had a phone at all, not whether it was on the table during the quiz.
Lead author Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA psychology professor, said in a UCLA press release that "we found that there's no age at which you can give a child a phone that's better or worse for reading comprehension." The release notes that the pattern held for students who spoke English at home and for those who did not, and credits a Flora Family Foundation grant with funding the work. UCLA posted its summary of the study on July 27, 2026.
Language, texting and nuance
The story is not entirely one way. Among children from homes where English is not the primary language, those who started texting earlier had, by sixth grade, reading scores similar to classmates who never had phones. That nuance, reported in Behavioral Sciences, suggests that texting practice might help bilingual students catch up in reading.
The authors stress that these are correlational findings, not proof that phones cause lower scores or that texting causes gains. They call for more research to understand what is actually driving the differences.
How this fits with local policy
California's Phone-Free School Act requires districts to put smartphone use policies in place by July 1, 2026, according to a statement from the governor’s office. Many local districts, including Los Angeles Unified, have already moved toward stricter bell to bell rules that limit use during the school day, as reported by LAist.
The UCLA findings arrive right as school leaders are sorting out how aggressive to be in enforcing on campus bans and whether outreach about kids simply owning phones might matter as much as rules about using them at school.
Experts say the evidence is mixed
Education analysts caution that clamping down on phones does not automatically boost academic performance. Larger district level studies have produced mixed results on test scores, even where teachers say distractions dropped. That pattern, with better classroom behavior but slower or uneven changes in standardized achievement, is described in coverage of recent research and policy shifts by Education Week.
Greenfield’s paper offers a closer look at elementary reading in particular, but it does not answer the bigger question of whether school bans or family choices will ultimately move long term outcomes.
For Los Angeles parents, the research sharpens a practical decision: it may be worth thinking twice about how early to hand over that first smartphone, while bilingual families might see some literacy upside in carefully supervised early texting. UCLA's team urges cautious, evidence driven policies that weigh academics, social life and safety as districts put their rules into place this year.
For more detail on the study and local coverage, see UCLA and MyNewsLA.
