Beyond Screen Time: The Different Longitudinal Relations between Adolescents’ Smartphone Use Content and Their Mental Health

Abstract

Purpose: Previous studies focusing on the relationship between adolescents’ screen time and mental health have uncovered contradictory results. By focusing on smartphone use content (SUC), this study uses specification curve analysis to explore the different effects of SUCs on mental health-based on longitudinal data. Methods: A total of 2552 adolescents were surveyed in the first (July 2020) and second year (April 2021). A total of 2049 eligible participants (average age = 14.39 ± 2.27, female = 1062) are included in the analysis. Participants reported 20 types of content used by them during smartphone use and their mental health (depression, anxiety, and somatization). Specification curve analysis was used to examine the longitudinal relationship between SUCs and their mental health. Results: Smartphone use for listening to music (median β = 0.18, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 25/27, p < 0.05), chatting online (median β = 0.15, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 24/27, p < 0.05), watching TV (median β = 0.14, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 24/27, p < 0.05), and playing games (median β = 0.09, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 19/27, p < 0.05) produce high to medium negative effects on subsequent mental health. Only using smartphones for online courses exerts no effect on their subsequent mental health (median β = 0.01, p > 0.05, NSRPD = 0/27, p > 0.05). The left 15 types of smartphone content showed unstable effects on future mental health. Depending on the types of content used, these effects ranged from high, medium, and small to none. The relatively descending order of effect on mental health is listening to music, chatting online, watching TV, playing games, and types of content (e.g., browsing social media, making payments, reading online novels) with high but unstable effects, types of content with medium (e.g., browsing news and posting/sharing) but unstable effects, types of content (e.g., using the camera, obtaining life information, and making calls) with small but unstable effects, such as finishing homework and taking online courses. Conclusions: This study enlightens researchers and policymakers to update their understanding of adolescents’ technology use, especially to adopt a differentiated attitude towards different media use content. As nutritionists often do, a “nutritionally balanced” digital diet for young people should be recommended to the public, rather than just suggesting limits on the amount of time they can spend using digital media.

Parental Mental Health, Gender, and Lifestyle Effects on Post-Pandemic Child and Adolescent Psychosocial Problems: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Northern Italy

“…Fifth, the high level of digital media use among children and adolescents is an ongoing concern. Although its use for educational purposes has also decreased since school closures and distance learning in South Tyrol [10,11], screen time for private purposes remains high and has been implicated as a significant predictor of mental health problems [43][44][45][46]. These non-pandemic-related items as well as sports behaviors were clearly associated with adolescents' mental health, suggesting that the best mental health outcomes are achieved by doing four or five days a week for at least 60 minutes of sports and using digital media for private concerns one hour or less per day.…”

A cross-lagged analysis of the relationship between short video overuse behavior and depression among college students

“…The analysis of longitudinal cross-lagged panel network data shows that the “conflict” in Short Video Addiction and the “sad mood” in depression may serve as bridge symptoms linking the co-occurrence of these two mental health issues ( Qu et al, 2024 ). However, there are other studies that did not find a robust relationship between watching short videos and psychopathological symptoms ( Huang et al, 2023 ).…”

“…However, some studies have found that different ways of using mobile phones have different types of impact on mental health. For instance, recreational activities such as online gaming, watching TV, and listening to music appear to have a stronger impact on mental health, whereas online courses do not ( Huang et al, 2023 ). Previous studies related to mobile phone addiction mainly focused on issues regarding social networking.…”