Trajectories of Screen Time across Adolescence and Their Associations with Adulthood Mental Health and Behavioral Outcomes

Abstract

Excessive screen time among adolescents is discussed as a significant public health concern. Identifying adolescent longitudinal patterns of time spent on regularly-used media screens and understanding their young adulthood mental health and behavioral issue correlates may help inform strategies for improving these outcomes. This study aimed to characterize joint developmental patterns of time spent on videogames, surfing/chatting the Internet, and TV/DVDs during adolescence (at ages 11, 13, 15, 17) and their associations with mental health (i.e., depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-injury) and behavioral issues (i.e., substance use, delinquency, aggression) in early adulthood (at age 20). A parallel-process latent class growth analysis was used to model data from a diverse community-ascertained sample of youth in Zurich, Switzerland (n = 1521; 51.7% males). Results suggested that a five-class model best fitted the data: (1) low-screen use, 37.6%; (2) increasing chatting/surfing, 24.0%; (3) moderate-screen use, 18.6%; (4) early-adolescence screen use, 9.9%; and (5) increasing videogame and chatting/surfing, 9.9%. After adjusting for baseline levels of outcomes (primarily at age 11), the trajectory groups differed in their associations with adulthood outcomes of mental health and behavioral problems, indicating the importance of problematic screen usage patterns in predicting these outcomes. Future research to test the directionality of these associations will be important. These findings suggest which patterns of screen use may be a marker for later mental health and behavioral issues in different domains.

Chronic Pb Exposure Induces Anxiety and Depression-like Behaviors in Mice via Excitatory Neuronal Hyperexcitability in Ventral Hippocampal Dentate Gyrus

“…12 week-old mice were used in our experiments to enable the modeling of young adults in human. Young adults have recently emerged as a vulnerable group more likely to be associated with mental disorders. − Hence, finding possible mechanisms and targeted interventions for young adults are urgently needed and may lead to earlier detection and treatment. In the first step, we detected anxiety and depression-like behaviors in adult mice under Pb exposure through several behavioral studies.…”

Trajectories of Adolescent Media Use and Their Associations With Psychotic Experiences

“…Notably, this association may vary according to longitudinal trajectories and types of media use. Longitudinal trajectories describe how amounts of media use change over time and are best documented in a prospective fashion to account for the duration and frequency of exposure during development . Additionally, various types of media use may have differential correlates, with regular video gaming associated with better cognitive performance and internet use more strongly associated with depression in adolescent girls in comparison with gaming or television (TV) viewing .…”

“…Media technologies have recreational, social, and academic uses that make some amount of exposure normative during adolescence . However, there is widespread concern that high use of screen-based media may increase the risk of mental health problems . Higher media use and mental health problems appear to share risk factors, such as parental mental health problems, loneliness, bullying, and parent-child relational problems .…”

“…8 However, there is widespread concern that high use of screen-based media may increase the risk of mental health problems. [9][10][11] Higher media use and mental health problems appear to share risk factors, such as parental mental health problems, loneliness, bullying, and parent-child relational problems. 1,[12][13][14][15] Given these functional and mental health associations, media use may also be a marker of PE risk, with one recent study showing a crosssectional association between higher digital media use and higher PEs among young adults.…”

“…Longitudinal trajectories describe how amounts of media use change over time and are best documented in a prospective fashion to account for the duration and frequency of exposure during development. 9,10 Additionally, various types of media use may have differential correlates, with regular video gaming associated with better cognitive performance 17 and internet use more strongly associated with depression in adolescent girls in comparison with gaming or television (TV) viewing. 11 In a population-based cohort, we therefore aimed to examine the associations between adolescent media use trajectories and lifetime PEs at 23 years of age.…”