Young people addicted to digital are at greater risk of suicide

Senior author suggests findings highlight need for further study and evaluation of approaches that have worked for other addictions in children and adolescents

New research shows that young people who become increasingly addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and emotional or behavioural issues.

The study, published in June, was led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley.

Unlike previous studies that focused on total screen time at one point in a child’s life, the study looked at how young people’s patterns of compulsive or “addictive” use changed over time. These patterns included feeling unable to stop using a device, experiencing distress when not using it or using it to escape from problems. In contrast, simply spending more time on screens at 10 years old wasn’t associated with worse suicide-related and mental health outcomes.

First Author, Dr. Yunyu Xiao, Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine said, “For parents and educators, the discussion around mobile phones and social media has focused on limiting or banning use, but our results indicate more complex factors are involved.” 

She added that clinical trials have shown that limiting mobile phone use, for instance during school hours, was not effective in reducing the risk of suicidal behaviour or improving mental health.

The study could signal a paradigm shift in how the impact of screen time on youth mental health is addressed. “Testing interventions that work against other types of addiction may be one way to approach this type of social media and mobile phone use,” said Dr. Xiao.

Over four years, the researchers tracked nearly 4,300 youths aged nine to 10 when they first started the study. Participants identified themselves as Asian, Black, Hispanic, white or multiracial. Using machine learning and data from participant interviews, the researchers characterised three addictive use trajectories for social media and mobile phone usage and two for addictive use with video games. When interpreted in a graph, these trajectories depicted relative levels of addictive behaviours.

By age 14, almost one in three participants had a high addictive use trajectory for social media and one in four for mobile phones. More than 40% of the youths had a high addictive use trajectory for video games. These adolescents were significantly more likely to report suicidal thoughts or behaviours, as well as symptoms of anxiety, depression, aggression or rule-breaking.

“The findings suggest repeated assessment of social media and mobile phones for addictive use patterns could be valuable in children entering adolescence.”

This study demonstrated that the total amount of time spent on social media, mobile phones and video games was not associated with future suicide-related or mental health outcomes. More importantly, it showed how youth were engaging with screens—especially whether their use showed signs of compulsion, distress or loss of control.

The findings suggest that repeated assessment of social media and mobile phones for addictive use patterns could be valuable in children entering adolescence. Dr. Xiao said, “Children who initially display low or moderate trajectories are not typically considered at-risk, but follow-up can detect concerning trends such as development of more severe addictive use over time.”

The study does not prove addictive screen use causes mental health problems, but higher addiction use trajectories are linked to roughly double the risk of suicidal behaviour in the near future of these teens.

Dr. John Mann, Senior Author on the study and the Paul Janssen Professor of Translational Neuroscience in Psychiatry and Radiology at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, said, “This calls for further study and evaluation of approaches that have worked for other addictions in children and adolescents which may apply to this issue.”