Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of screen time with adolescent depression and anxiety.

IF 3.8 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

British Journal of Clinical Psychology Pub Date : 2025-04-22 DOI:10.1111/bjc.12547

Sophie H Li, Philip J Batterham, Alexis E Whitton, Kate Maston, Asaduzzaman Khan, Helen Christensen, Aliza Werner-Seidler

{"title":"Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of screen time with adolescent depression and anxiety.","authors":"Sophie H Li, Philip J Batterham, Alexis E Whitton, Kate Maston, Asaduzzaman Khan, Helen Christensen, Aliza Werner-Seidler","doi":"10.1111/bjc.12547","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Objective: The relationship between screen time and mental health in adolescents is debated in the scientific literature, with longitudinal studies lacking. This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between screen time and depression and anxiety and the influence of maladaptive social media use and gender on these associations.Methods: We analysed a sample of 4058 adolescents (mean age = 13.9) recruited from 134 Australian schools as part of the Future Proofing Study, a 5-year prospective cohort study of adolescent mental health. Linear mixed models used Time 1 and Time 2 (12-month follow-up) data to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of screen time with depression and anxiety and the influence of maladaptive social media use and gender.Results: Screen time was associated with mental health symptoms cross-sectionally, with each additional hour of screen time corresponding with a 1.25 and .79 increase in measures of depression and anxiety, respectively. Longitudinally, these associations were markedly weaker. Each additional hour of screen time corresponded with only a .15 increase in depression at 12 months and showed no association with anxiety at 12 months. Neither gender nor maladaptive social media use substantially influenced screen time-symptom associations.Conclusions: Compared to cross-sectional associations, longitudinal associations were weak, indicating that high screen time is unlikely to cause depression and anxiety; instead, observed relationships may be bidirectional. Experimental studies to understand the nuances underlying the relationship between screen time and mental health are needed to support the development of targeted strategies that promote healthy screen time habits among adolescents.","PeriodicalId":48211,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Clinical Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Clinical Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12547","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: The relationship between screen time and mental health in adolescents is debated in the scientific literature, with longitudinal studies lacking. This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between screen time and depression and anxiety and the influence of maladaptive social media use and gender on these associations.

Methods: We analysed a sample of 4058 adolescents (mean age = 13.9) recruited from 134 Australian schools as part of the Future Proofing Study, a 5-year prospective cohort study of adolescent mental health. Linear mixed models used Time 1 and Time 2 (12-month follow-up) data to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of screen time with depression and anxiety and the influence of maladaptive social media use and gender.

Results: Screen time was associated with mental health symptoms cross-sectionally, with each additional hour of screen time corresponding with a 1.25 and .79 increase in measures of depression and anxiety, respectively. Longitudinally, these associations were markedly weaker. Each additional hour of screen time corresponded with only a .15 increase in depression at 12 months and showed no association with anxiety at 12 months. Neither gender nor maladaptive social media use substantially influenced screen time-symptom associations.

Conclusions: Compared to cross-sectional associations, longitudinal associations were weak, indicating that high screen time is unlikely to cause depression and anxiety; instead, observed relationships may be bidirectional. Experimental studies to understand the nuances underlying the relationship between screen time and mental health are needed to support the development of targeted strategies that promote healthy screen time habits among adolescents.

查看原文本刊更多论文

屏幕时间与青少年抑郁和焦虑的横断面和纵向关联。

目的：屏幕时间与青少年心理健康之间的关系在科学文献中存在争议，缺乏纵向研究。这项研究调查了屏幕时间与抑郁和焦虑之间的横断面和纵向联系，以及不适应社交媒体使用和性别对这些联系的影响。方法：我们分析了来自134所澳大利亚学校的4058名青少年（平均年龄= 13.9岁）的样本，作为未来证明研究的一部分，这是一项为期5年的青少年心理健康前瞻性队列研究。线性混合模型使用时间1和时间2（12个月随访）数据来检查屏幕时间与抑郁和焦虑的横断面和纵向关联，以及不适应社交媒体使用和性别的影响。结果：屏幕时间与心理健康症状横断面相关，屏幕时间每增加一小时，抑郁和焦虑的测量分别增加1.25和0.79。纵向上，这些关联明显较弱。在12个月的时间里，每增加一个小时的屏幕时间，抑郁只会增加0.15%，而在12个月的时间里，与焦虑没有任何联系。性别和不适应社交媒体的使用对屏幕时间-症状的关联都没有实质性影响。结论：与横断面关联相比，纵向关联较弱，表明高屏幕时间不太可能引起抑郁和焦虑；相反，观察到的关系可能是双向的。需要进行实验研究，了解屏幕时间与心理健康之间关系的细微差别，以支持制定有针对性的策略，促进青少年健康的屏幕时间习惯。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

British Journal of Clinical Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

5.80

自引率

3.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： The British Journal of Clinical Psychology publishes original research, both empirical and theoretical, on all aspects of clinical psychology: - clinical and abnormal psychology featuring descriptive or experimental studies - aetiology, assessment and treatment of the whole range of psychological disorders irrespective of age group and setting - biological influences on individual behaviour - studies of psychological interventions and treatment on individuals, dyads, families and groups