Increased Screen Time May Be Linked to Depression in Adolescents
In the expanding field of mental health research, many scientists have been striving to find ways to determine accurately what factors may be responsible for mental health disorders such as depression and how they can ultimately lead to suicide. Approximately 45,000 American deaths occur by suicide each year, marking it as a vastly important public health concern. Identifying depression, one of the major risk factors for suicide, in adolescence is the central goal of many current studies. It is, therefore, worth noting that 2012, the year in which smartphones became used by more than 50% of Americans, was also the year when depressive symptoms began to increase. As a result, a variety of new studies have been focusing on the impact that smartphones, and all the media that comes with them, can have as potential risk factors for depression and, possibly, suicide in adolescents.
One such study, conducted by researchers at San Diego State University, focused on how increased screen time on new media (such as smartphones and social media) after 2010 might lead to or increase depression in adolescents, aged 13 to 18. The researchers focused on how the screen time might cause adolescents to report either depressive symptoms or suicide-related outcomes. These depressive symptoms were based on scaled responses to a number of statements that assessed emotional well-being, such as“I feel I can’t do anything right.” Suicide-related outcomes were based on responses to a questionnaire asking if the subject had serious suicidal thoughts or tendencies. When the study was completed, the researchers found that, among other statistics, adolescents who used electronic devices for more than 3 hours a day were 34% more likely to report a suicide-related outcome or a depressive symptom. Additionally, the study also generally concluded that a higher amount of time spent on screen media was correlated with a higher chance of reporting depressive symptoms.
One such study, conducted by researchers at San Diego State University, focused on how increased screen time on new media (such as smartphones and social media) after 2010 might lead to or increase depression in adolescents, aged 13 to 18. The researchers focused on how the screen time might cause adolescents to report either depressive symptoms or suicide-related outcomes. These depressive symptoms were based on scaled responses to a number of statements that assessed emotional well-being, such as“I feel I can’t do anything right.” Suicide-related outcomes were based on responses to a questionnaire asking if the subject had serious suicidal thoughts or tendencies. When the study was completed, the researchers found that, among other statistics, adolescents who used electronic devices for more than 3 hours a day were 34% more likely to report a suicide-related outcome or a depressive symptom. Additionally, the study also generally concluded that a higher amount of time spent on screen media was correlated with a higher chance of reporting depressive symptoms.
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Because the researchers could not establish a cause-and-effect between screen usage and depression and were only able to report correlated findings between them, they ensured that no other elements were also influencing depression in their study by testing for other potential risk factors. Some examples included the amount of homework that an adolescent was assigned and economic factors related to the Dow Jones index. Both of these factors were proven not to cause depressive symptoms, and, in fact, an increased amount of time spent on homework was correlated with less depressive symptoms. However, another variable that was examined, the amount of time spent in one-on-one personal interactions, was proven to be inversely correlated to depressive symptoms; that is, adolescents who spent more time in one-on-one in-person interactions were less likely to report depressive symptoms. This statistic, along with the other findings of the study, point to a highly probable link between screen time and depression, and as social media usage and screen time expands, it is important to take note and keep track of how adolescents are responding to this increasingly digital landscape.
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