Screen addiction and suicidal behavior are linked to teenagers, an investigation turns out

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A new study notes that addiction to social media, mobile phones and video games is linked to a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior.

The study, published in Jama On Wednesday, data about more than 4,000 children from a continuous longitudinal study that followed for years, starting at 9 to 10 years. It discovered that around the age of 14 about a third of the children had become always addicted to social media, about fifteen minutes had become always addicted to their mobile phone and more than 40% showed signs of addiction to video games.

“And these young people are considerably more likely to report suicidal behavior and thoughts,” says Study Author Yunyu XiaoA professor of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

“It is an important study and increasing awareness about screen addiction,” says Dr. Jason NagataA pediatrician who specializes in the use of adolescents at the University of California, San Francisco. “It shows that elements of addiction with regard to screen use are stronger predictive for poorer mental health and even suicide risks compared to only screen time. So I think it offers more nuance.”

A large study known as ABCD

Xiao and her colleagues used data from a large -scale current longitudinal study called the Study for adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD). Over the years it followed thousands of children and they periodically assessed for both their average daily screen time and for symptoms of addiction, so that they could also see how this addictive behavior changed over time.

They assessed addiction with a standardized questionnaire asking to respond to statements such as: “I spend a lot of time thinking about social media apps or I am planning to use the social media apps,” Xiao explains. “I try to use the app social media less, but I can’t.” And also “I feel stressed and or upset if I can’t use my social media apps” or “I use it so much that it has a bad effect on my school work.” “

Her team was able to group the teenagers based on how these answers changed over time.

With social media they discovered that almost 60% had low levels of addiction to social media and that remained stable over the years. But about a tenth had increasing addiction that peaked around years three and four of the study, and a third showed increasing addiction.

With the use of mobile phones, about half showed a high addiction and a quarter had increasing addiction. With video games they found only two groups – with about 60% that showed low addiction that remained stable over time, and 41% was very addicted to it during the period.

Questions about suicidal behavior

The study also evaluated suicidal thoughts and behaviors. It uses a questionnaire that asked for passive and active suicide thoughts, as well as any suicide attempts. During year four of the study, almost 18% reported that they had had suicidal thoughts, and 5% admitted to suicide behavior, including making suicide plans and attempts.

The groups with high and increasing addiction to mobile phones and social media were associated with a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. The very addictive group for video games also had a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior compared to the group with little addictive use. However, the total screen time was not linked to a higher suicide risk.

“What surprised us is that these are substantial groups, and they are associated with 2 to 3 times [risk] From suicide behavior, “says Xiao.

Screen time is not inherently good or bad

Researchers, educators and parents often point out the amount of time that teenagers spend on their screens to measure problematic use, say Xiao and Nagata.

“We all get reports from our phones about our weekly screen time,” says Nagata. “Screen time is an easily understandable statistics because it is minutes or hours a day that we spend on screens.”

But, he adds that the screen time is not inherently good or bad, so he welcomes the nuance that this study contributes to the conversation because the signing of addiction marks.

“Some children can spend their time on the screen reading the news, and some can troll some pretty dangerous sites,” says psychologist Mitch PrinsteinProfessor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. “So it’s really hard to know what to make of screen time as a risk factor.”

That is why the screen time is only “no useful measure,” says psychologist Mary Alvord. It is more important to understand how a teenager uses his screen time.

“They might talk to a friend, but they talk to a friend Irl, or do they talk to an avatar made by AI?” says Alvord. “And do they use screens to avoid things in real life?”

Avoiding real life is a red flag

One of the statements in the questionnaire of addictive use is: “I play video games so that I can forget my problems.”

“Avoiding is an important symptom of both fear and depression,” says Alvord, and it is revealing about the status of a teenager in mental health care and the relationship with video games or screens in general.

“We are really starting to understand what the specific characteristics or the specific behavior that may be more worrying” Advies panel about the use of social media in adolescents. “And the extent to which children say:” I can’t stop even if I try. I have withdrawal, dependence, tolerance symptoms, “that’s important.”

Nagata has also used data from the ABCD study To understand how teenagers use social media In the course of time and how that influences their risk of mental health symptoms.

“One thing that really strikes me is that these symptoms of screen addictions are unfortunately actually quite common,” says Nagata. He also discovered that some symptoms occur more often over time.

He and his colleagues discovered that 47.5% of the 11-12 year olds said that “I lose sight of how much I use my phone,” said 22.5%: “I spend a lot of time thinking about apps for social media or planning my use of social media apps” and 18.4% said: “I use social media apps so that I can forget my problems.”

At the age of 12-13, 25% said they use social media to forget their problemsAnd 25% admitted that he spent a considerable amount of time thinking about social media apps.

With the help of the same data from the ABCD study, he and his colleagues also discovered that the time on social media increased in the course of the study for Pre -Front. “At the start of the study, the average time was only 7 minutes a day, but four years later the average time was more than 70 minutes a day.”

And The more time these children spent on social mediaThe more their depressive symptoms increased.

“Parents, teachers, clinicians must be, looking for warning signals for screen addictions, especially since they can relate to a higher risk of depression or suicide risk in teenagers,” says Nagata.