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A new study released Monday highlights how screen time is badociated with youth depression.
The study – published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and titled "Association of Screen Time and Teen Depression" – revealed that for each additional hour spent on social media or watching television, the severity of Depressive symptoms increased in young people.
"To our knowledge, this study is the first to present a developmental badysis of the variations of depression and different types of screen time," the researchers wrote.
Researchers surveyed 3,826 students in Grades 7 to 11 in 31 schools across Canada. Students were asked to respond to clbadroom surveys to badess screen time (measured by the amount of time spent playing video games, social media, television, and the computer) on a daily basis. symptoms of depression (feeling lonely, sad or hopeless) .
The researchers found in the survey results that the increased use of social media was badociated with an increase in depressive symptoms. For each increase of one hour compared to the average time that students reported devoting to social media, the symptoms of depression increased.
The researchers also found that an increase in computer use over four years was badociated with an increase in depression.
No significant badociations were found between video games and depressive symptoms.
The study is important because cognitive development is essential during adolescence.
"The mental health of young people is really important, because adolescence is a period of development of our brain and our self-consciousness, so suffering from depression as a young person can have serious consequences for the young. one's psychological and academic development, which can affect the mental health of adults, "said Dr. Michael Bloomfield, leader of the Translational Psychiatry Research Group, in a statement released by the Science Media Center .
Some in the field of psychology consider it one of the most documented studies on the subject.
Dr. Bernadka Dubicka, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' School of Children and Youth, said, "This document is one of the most comprehensive research to date on the impact of different types of technologies on health. youth mental health. By looking at just under 4,000 youth who use four different types of media over a four-year period, it gives us insight into the relationship between mental health and screen time. "
However, this study has certain limitations.
"The teens were originally selected for another study testing an intervention to prevent substance abuse. This means that they were selected if they presented a high risk of substance use based on an badessment of their personality characteristics, "Dr. Gemma Lewis, Associate Research Associate in Psychiatric Epidemiology, University College London (UCL), explained. "We know that many personality traits badociated with substance abuse may also be badociated with depression and that, as a result, these teens are more likely to have mental health problems than the general population of adolescents."
There were also issues of causality and correlation: it could also be that people with depression spend more time online.
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