a b s t r a c tThe increasing prevalence of media multitasking among youth has raised concerns regarding its negative effects on youths' functioning. Although the number of empirical studies on the consequences of media multitasking for youth has grown rapidly, there has been no attempt to integrate theory with the results of these studies. This review integrates available findings on the relationship between media multitasking and three domains of youths' functioning: cognitive control, academic performance, and socioemotional functioning. Three databases (PsycINFO, ERIC, and CMMC) were searched to identify relevant studies, resulting in 8448 citations. Fifty-six studies met the inclusion criteria: nine studies on cognitive control, 43 on academic performance, and four on socioemotional functioning. Overall, the findings indicate a small to moderate negative relationship between media multitasking and the three domains of youths' functioning. However, evidence regarding the causal direction of this relationship is lacking. Based on the included studies, we identify several research gaps and present five main directions for future research: examining causality, establishing more targeted theories, improving media multitasking measurements, focusing on individual and contextual differences, and including representative samples.

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The increased prevalence of media multitasking among adolescents has raised concerns that media multitasking may cause attention problems. Despite cross-sectional evidence of the relationship between media multitasking and attention problems, no study has yet investigated this relationship longitudinally. It is therefore unclear how these two variables are related. Two 3-wave longitudinal studies with 3-and 6-month time lags were conducted. In total, 2,390 adolescents aged 11-16 provided data on media multitasking and attention problems. Findings from random intercept autoregressive crosslagged models suggest that media multitasking and attention problems were strongly related between individuals. Empirical evidence for a potential detrimental long-term effect of media multitasking on attention problems was only found among early adolescents but not among middle adolescents.

Although previous research established a positive association between perceived social support and adolescent life satisfaction, little is known about the relative importance of different sources of support for adolescent life satisfaction and cross-country variations in this respect. Using large-scale representative samples from the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, this study examined to what extent the association between social support and life satisfaction in early adolescence varied across different social sources and countries. Also, it examined whether cross-country variations are explained by national-level generalized trust, a sociocultural factor that shapes adolescent socialization. National-level data were linked to data from 183,918 early adolescents (Mage = 13.56, SD = 1.63, 52% girls) from 42 European and North American countries/regions obtained from HBSC. Multilevel regression analyses yielded a positive association between support from different sources and life satisfaction. The strongest associations were found for support from families, followed by teachers and classmates, and weakest for support from friends. Associations varied across different countries/regions. National-level trust amplified the association between perceived classmate support and adolescent life satisfaction. The revealed cross-country differences open avenues for future cross-cultural research on explanations for cross-cultural differences in the association between social support from different sources and life satisfaction in early adolescence.

The increase in media multitasking among adolescents has raised concerns regarding its possible negative impact on sleep. Although cross-sectional studies have found a relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems, knowledge about the causal direction is lacking. In a first step to understand causality, we examined the longitudinal relationship between media multitasking and sleep problems among 1443 adolescents (7th and 8th graders, 11e15 years, 51% boys), who completed a questionnaire three times at three-to-four month intervals. We employed random intercept cross-lagged panel models, which specifically examine cross-lagged correlations within (rather than between) individuals. The findings showed no cross-lagged correlations for the overall sample. However, the results indicated that, for 7th graders and girls, media multitasking was (marginally) related to more subsequent sleep problems. Our findings provide first evidence that media multitasking may affect the sleep of 7th graders and girls.

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The increased prevalence of media multitasking among adolescents has raised concerns that media multitasking may cause attention problems. Despite cross-sectional evidence of the relationship between media multitasking and attention problems, no study has yet investigated this relationship longitudinally. It is therefore unclear how these two variables are related. Two 3-wave longitudinal studies with 3-and 6-month time lags were conducted. In total, 2,390 adolescents aged 11-16 provided data on media multitasking and attention problems. Findings from random intercept autoregressive crosslagged models suggest that media multitasking and attention problems were strongly related between individuals. Empirical evidence for a potential detrimental long-term effect of media multitasking on attention problems was only found among early adolescents but not among middle adolescents.

Adolescents commonly use media and communication devices during academic activities, also referred to as academic-media multitasking. Although there is evidence for the short-term effect of academic-media multitasking on academic achievement, support for its long-term effect is lacking. Therefore, we investigated the long-term relationship between academic-media multitasking and academic achievement, and the possible underlying mechanism of academic attention problems using a three-wave longitudinal study, with time intervals of 3–4 months, among 1215 adolescents (11–15 years, 52% boys). Although academic-media multitasking and academic achievement were cross-sectionally related, the findings showed neither support for a direct nor indirect long-term relationship between academic-media multitasking and subsequent academic achievement scores. However, academic-media multitasking was associated with an increase in subsequent academic attention problems. This study indicates that concerns regarding the long-term impact of academic-media multitasking on academic achievement need to be qualified.