The mental effect of addictive screen use in youth

“Validated self-report questionnaires^25 ,26 were used to assess addictive uses for 3 platforms—social media, mobile phones, and video games—including a 6-item Social Media Addiction Questionnaire (SMAQ), 8-item Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire (MPIQ), and 6-item Video Game Addiction Questionnaire (VGAQ),^27 ,28 measuring compulsive use, difficulty disengaging, and distress when not using.”

This study sources data from questionnaires for 3 addictive platforms: social media, mobile phones, and video games. Using this data, it attempts to find connections from these addictive behaviors to compulsive screen use, difficulty engaging with other people, and distress when not engaging in the addictive behavior.

“While most existing research has
focused on total screen time, emerging evidence suggests
that addictive screen use may be a more salient risk factor for
suicidality and mental health in youths.(…) [A]ddictive use trajectories among
youths have not been well characterized, and how they may
relate to suicide-related and mental health outcomes remains
largely unknown.”

While most existing research has focused on total screen time, recent evidence suggests addictive screen use may present a larger risk for suicidality and mental health in youths. How suicide-related and mental health outcomes relate to addictive screen use is widely unknown.

“For social media addictive use, adjusted models showed that both high-peaking and increasing addictive use trajectories were associated with higher risk of suicidal behaviors and elevated risk of suicidal ideation compared with the low addictive use trajectory.”

Individuals in this study who increasingly used social media over the 4 years this study was conducted and individuals that increased social media usage then reduced social media usage over the 4 years both were associated with higher risk of suicidal behaviors and increased risk of suicidal ideation compared to those with low social media usage.

“For both social media and mobile phones, addictive use
trajectories followed 3 different patterns, and a substantial proportion of youths had addictive use trajectories that increased over the 4 years of observation, starting at age 10 years. These increasing addictive use patterns, which would not have been predicted based on baseline assessments alone, were associated with elevated risks of suicidal behaviors and ideation.”

How the addictive use of social media and mobile phone changed over the 4 year observation followed 3 different patterns(i.e. use trajectories). A substantial proportion of youth increased in the use of social media and mobile phones over the observation period starting at age 10. The increasing use of these addictive behaviors, which wouldn’t have been found without assessing the increased use over time, were associated with higher risk of suicidal behavior and ideation.

“These findings suggest that focusing future research or interventions on addictive screen use might hold more promise than focusing on total screen time, which may unnecessarily involve low-risk youths.”

Research should be done to investigate if reducing specifically addictive screen time through intervention might hold more promise than simply reducing total screen time, which may unnecessarily intervene on youths with a low-risk of suicide

Internalizing symptom T scores were higher in the
increasing addictive use trajectory (mean difference, 1.27;
95% CI, 0.66-1.88; FDR-adjusted P < .001), while externalizing symptom T scores were higher in both high-peaking
(mean difference, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.45-2.04; FDR-adjusted
P = .004) and increasing (mean difference, 1.05; 95% CI,
0.54-1.56; FDR-adjusted P < .001) addictive use trajectories
compared with the low addictive use trajectory, all having
small effect sizes (Cohen d < 2)