The Evidence
Behind Control the Moment

Every claim on this page is sourced. Here is the research the curriculum is built on, and an honest account of what we do and do not yet claim.

PART ONE

The 2012 Inflection

Between late 2012 and early 2013, United States households smartphone ownership crossed fifty percent. In that same window, every federally tracked measureof adolescent mental health turned sharply upward and has ot returned to its prior baseline.

42%

of U.S. high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 28.5% in 2011.

CDC YRBS, 2023

47%

relative increase in teen persistent sadness between 2011 and 2021

CDC YRBS, 2023

57%

of female high school students reported persistent sadness in 2021.

CDC YRBS, 2023

15.9%

of U.S. adolescents had a major depressive episode in 2019, up from 8.1% in 2009.

Daly, 2022

If you or a student is in crisis, call or text 988. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24/77

PART TWO

A Fifteen-Year Timeline

Every K-12 SEL curriculum in wide United States adaption was designed before the middle of this timeline.

2010

2012

2017

2019

2023

2024

Instagram and the iPhone 4 arrive

More than half of U.S. homes now have a smartphone

A researcher first links the phone shift to rising teen depression

Teen depression reaches 15.9 percent

The CDC confirms the rise is real and lasting

The research finally points the same direction

PART THREE

What Phones, Tablets, and Feeds do to the Brain

If a lesson never mentions the problem, it can't help with it.

How long people focus on one screen before switching

2.5 min

75 sec

47 sec

2012

2020

2001

Mark, 2023. The 2012 drop happens the same year most homes got a smartphone.

237+

phone alerts a day forhalf of kids ages 11 to 17. About a quarter come in during school.

Common Sense Media, 2023

Brain scans

show real changes after kids watch short videos. They have a harder time staying focused and stopping themselves before they react.

Zhang et al., 2024

40%

of kids have their own tablet by age 2. By age 4 it's 58 percent. This starts years before kindergarten.

Common Sense Census, 2025

PART FOUR

Why It Has to Be Every Day

Coping skills work the same way as any other skill. You have to do them over and over before they show up on their own.

59 to 66

days in a row before a new habit starts happening without thinking about it. (Lally 2010, Singh 2024)

10 min

a day, taught by the teacher who is already standing in the room.

180 school days in a year, more than enough to get past that window.

2,340

lessons from kindergarten through twelfth grade, or 390 hours of practice.

A lesson once a week never gets enough days in a row for it to stick.

The part of the brain that handles self-control keeps growing until a person is in their mid twenties. that is why one unit in third grade does not work. Control the Moment teaches the same skills every year from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and goes a little deeper each time.

PART FIVE

Schools are using programs built on research from a different childhood.

The report most often named as the evidence base for school-based social-emotional learning was published in 2011 and pooled 213 studies. To be included, a study had to be out by December 31, 2007. The first iPhone had shipped six months earlier. Nothing that came after made it in.

No

MEETS THE POST-2012 TEST

1986

FIRST RELEASED

Second Step

PROGRAM

No

1994

PATHS

No

1981

Responsive Classroom

No

2005

RULER

No

2010

Move This World

No

2016

CharacterStrong

YES

2026

CONTROL the MOMENT

THE POINT

Not one of these programs was designed for a classroom where every student arrives with a phone. Control the Moment was built inside that world, for the classroom that has to teach in it.

The post-2012 test: the program was designed after 2012, and its stated design rationale accounts for daily smartphone and social media use by the students it serves. Judged on published program design documentation only. Full coding for all programs appears in the white paper, Part 4.

Sources: Durlak et al., 2011, Child Development. 213 school-based universal SEL programs, 270,034 students; studies had to appear in published or unpublished form by December 31, 2007. Release years verified against Committee for Children, Center for Responsive Schools, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, CharacterStrong, Move This World, and Kusché and Greenberg publications, retrieved July 2026. Several of these programs have been revised since first release and have evaluations published after 2012.

The Evidence Behind Control the Moment

Every claim on this page is sourced. Here is the research the curriculum is built on, and an honest account of what we do and do not yet claim.

PART ONE

The 2012 Inflection

Between late 2012 and early 2013, United States households smartphone ownership crossed fifty percent. In that same window, every federally tracked measureof adolescent mental health turned sharply upward and has ot returned to its prior baseline.

42%

of U.S. high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 28.5% in 2011.

CDC YRBS, 2023

47%

relative increase in teen persistent sadness between 2011 and 2021

CDC YRBS, 2023

57%

of female high school students reported persistent sadness in 2021.

CDC YRBS, 2023

15.9%

of U.S. adolescents had a major depressive episode in 2019, up from 8.1% in 2009.

Daly, 2022

If you or a student is in crisis, call or text 988. Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, available 24/77

PART TWO

A Fifteen-Year Timeline

Every K-12 SEL curriculum in wide United States adaption was designed before the middle of this timeline.

2010

2012

2017

2019

2023

2024

Instagram and the iPhone 4 arrive

More than half of U.S. homes now have a smartphone

A researcher first links the phone shift to rising teen depression

Teen depression reaches 15.9 percent

The CDC confirms the rise is real and lasting

The research finally points the same direction

PART THREE

What Phones, Tablets, and Feeds do to the Brain

If a lesson never mentions the problem, it can't help with it.

How long people focus on one screen before switching

2.5 min

75 sec

47 sec

2012

2020

2001

Mark, 2023. The 2012 drop happens the same year most homes got a smartphone.

237+

phone alerts a day forhalf of kids ages 11 to 17. About a quarter come in during school.

Common Sense Media, 2023

Brain scans

show real changes after kids watch short videos. They have a harder time staying focused and stopping themselves before they react.

Zhang et al., 2024

40%

of kids have their own tablet by age 2. By age 4 it's 58 percent. This starts years before kindergarten.

Common Sense Census, 2025

PART FOUR

Why It Has to Be Every Day

Coping skills work the same way as any other skill. You have to do them over and over before they show up on their own.

59 to 66

days in a row before a new habit starts happening without thinking about it. (Lally 2010, Singh 2024)

10 min

a day, taught by the teacher who is already standing in the room.

180

school days in a year, more than enough to get past that window.

2,340

lessons from kindergarten through twelfth grade, or 390 hours of practice.

A lesson once a week never gets enough days in a row for it to stick.

The part of the brain that handles self-control keeps growing until a person is in their mid twenties. that is why one unit in third grade does not work. Control the Moment teaches the same skills every year from kindergarten through twelfth grade, and goes a little deeper each time.

PART FIVE

Schools are using programs built on research from a different childhood.

The report most often named as the evidence base for school-based social-emotional learning was published in 2011 and pooled 213 studies. To be included, a study had to be out by December 31, 2007. The first iPhone had shipped six months earlier. Nothing that came after made it in.

No

MEETS THE POST-2012 TEST

1986

FIRST RELEASED

Second Step

PROGRAM

No

1994

No

1981

Responsive Classroom

The Evidence
Behind Control the Moment