Five days at outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues

TLDR

The study tested whether a five‑day, screen‑free nature camp would enhance preteens’ ability to recognize nonverbal emotional cues compared to usual media use. Fifty‑one preteens attended the camp without television, computers, or phones, while 54 matched school‑based controls continued normal media habits; both groups completed pre‑ and post‑tests of facial and video emotion recognition, and change scores were analyzed with covariates. Preteens in the camp improved significantly more than controls on both facial expression and video emotion‑recognition tasks, indicating that brief, face‑to‑face interaction without screens boosts nonverbal cue understanding.

Abstract

A field experiment examined whether increasing opportunities for face-to-face interaction while eliminating the use of screen-based media and communication tools improved nonverbal emotion–cue recognition in preteens. Fifty-one preteens spent five days at an overnight nature camp where television, computers and mobile phones were not allowed; this group was compared with school-based matched controls (n = 54) that retained usual media practices. Both groups took pre- and post-tests that required participants to infer emotional states from photographs of facial expressions and videotaped scenes with verbal cues removed. Change scores for the two groups were compared using gender, ethnicity, media use, and age as covariates. After five days interacting face-to-face without the use of any screen-based media, preteens' recognition of nonverbal emotion cues improved significantly more than that of the control group for both facial expressions and videotaped scenes. Implications are that the short-term effects of increased opportunities for social interaction, combined with time away from screen-based media and digital communication tools, improves a preteen's understanding of nonverbal emotional cues.