Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health

Donati, Dante; Durante, Ruben; Sobbrio, Francesco; Zejcirovic, Dijana

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4114775

Cited by 9 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Consistent with findings from Donati et al. (2022), I find that broadband Internet significantly and negatively affects the mental health of younger cohorts of women.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…In this paper, I exploit a similar natural experiment in the context of the German telecommunication network infrastructure to examine the causal impact of Internet access on a variety of outcomes, namely mental health and its sub-facets (vitality, socializing behavior, reactions to emotional problems and mood). Consistent with findings from Donati et al (2022), I find that broadband Internet significantly and negatively affects the mental health of younger cohorts of women.…”

supporting

confidence: 83%

“…They find a significant and negative effect of Facebook use on self-reported measures of psychological well-being and mental health. Closest to this paper is work by Donati et al (2022) who exploit exogenous differences in the proximity of Italian municipalities to the pre-existing voice telecommunication infrastructure to show that broadband Internet leads to an increase in diagnoses of mental disorders. In this paper, I exploit a similar natural experiment in the context of the German telecommunication network infrastructure to examine the causal impact of Internet access on a variety of outcomes, namely mental health and its sub-facets (vitality, socializing behavior, reactions to emotional problems and mood).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

Golin

2022

Health Economics

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Mental health conditions, together with substance-use disorders, account for a significant share of the global disease burden (Collins et al., 2011;Vos et al., 2012). This share is particularly large among the population aged 10-24, and has significantly increased over time between 1990 and 2017. 1 Further, women are almost twice as likely as men to experience episodes of depression (DeRubeis et al., 2008; WHO, 2000). The economic costs of poor mental health are large. The World Health Organization estimates the current cost to the global economy of depression and anxiety to be around US$ 1 trillion per year in lost productivity (Patel et al., 2016; WHO, 2019) 2 and a large body of evidence highlights the negative consequences of mental illness on individual economic outcomes. 3 Yet, despite the significant societal and economic burden of mental health disorders, to date relatively little is known about the determinants of mental health and factors affecting psychological well-being over the lifetime. Recently, attention has been drawn to the role of Internet and mobile technologies in contributing to the rise of mental disorders, especially among the population of young adults. 4 The scientific evidence on the effect of these new technologies is however scant. In this paper, I aim to fill this gap in the literature and look at the causal effect of broadband Internet access on self-reported mental health, and the role of technology in contributing to the gender gap in mental health.

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“…Consistent with findings from Donati et al. (2022), I find that broadband Internet significantly and negatively affects the mental health of younger cohorts of women.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 90%

supporting

confidence: 83%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

Golin

2022

Health Economics

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“…The evidence gathered suggested that while broadband availability caused an increase in firm size, it did not have a significant impact on labor productivity. Donati et al (2022) investigated the impact of Internet penetration on adolescent mental health in Italy by merging municipal-level data on broadband access with hospital discharge records for the period from 2001 to 2013. They employed a TSLS framework, where municipal-level DSL coverage was instrumented with the municipality's proximity to the nearest high-level telecommunication exchanges (Urban Group Stage, UGS), interacted with a dummy variable for the post-2001 period.…”

Section: The Topology Of Initial Broadband Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches

Sabatini

2024

SSRN Journal

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“…Two other studies focus on the effect of high-speed internet access. Donati et al (2022) studied the expansion and roll out high speed internet in Italy. Using local hospitalization reports, they found expansions to high-speed internet increases admissions for mental health diagnoses but only for younger cohorts.…”

Section: Social Media and Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The re‐emerging suicide crisis in the U.S.: Patterns, causes and solutions

Marcotte,

Hansen

2023

J Policy Anal Manage

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The suicide rate in the United States has risen nearly 40% since 2000. This increase is puzzling because suicide rates had been falling for decades at the end of the 20th century. In this paper, we review important facts about the changing rate of suicide. General trends do not tell the story of important differences across groups—suicide rates rose substantially among middle‐aged persons between 2005 and 2015 but have fallen since. Among young people, suicide rates began a rapid rise after 2010 that has not abated. We review empirical evidence to assess potential causes for recent changes in suicide rates. The economic hardship caused by the Great Recession played an important role in rising suicide among prime‐aged Americans. Among those under 25, nearly all the increase in suicide mortality during the 2010s can be explained by an increase in the prevalence of depression. Bullying victimization of LGBTQ youth could also account for part of the rise in suicide. The evidence that access to firearms or opioids are major drivers of recent suicide trends is less clear. We end by summarizing evidence on the most promising policies to reduce suicide mortality.

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Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health

Cited by 9 publications

References 18 publications

The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

The effect of broadband Internet on the gender gap in mental health: Evidence from Germany

The Behavioral, Economic, and Political Impact of the Internet and Social Media: Empirical Challenges and Approaches

The re‐emerging suicide crisis in the U.S.: Patterns, causes and solutions

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