Significant levels of screen time in children aged between nine and 11 is associated with a higher risk of developing suicidal behaviours two years later, a new study finds.
The research also reveals that each additional hour of screen time is associated with a heightened risk of suicidal behaviour, with watching videos, playing video games, texting and video chatting all identified as activities which can lead to this.
“Screen usage could lead to social isolation, cyberbullying, and sleep disruption, which could worsen mental health,” said senior author, Dr Jason Nagata, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
“More time on screens often displaces time for in person socialising, physical activity, and sleep.
“Screen time can have important benefits such as education and socialisation, but parents should try to mitigate adverse mental health risks from excessive screen time.
“Parents should regularly talk to their children about screen usage and role model screen behaviours.”
Significantly, the study was mainly carried out before the COVID-19 pandemic, when screen time usage among young people increased hugely due to isolation – with research showing it doubling to almost eight hours a day – and saw a decline in the mental health of many children and adolescents.
The period from early 2020 also saw the start of new technology-based habits among many young people, which have continued and grown since.
“The study was conducted mostly prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but its findings are especially relevant now since youth mental health worsened during the pandemic,” noted co-author Dr Kyle T. Ganson, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.
The study builds upon the existing knowledge surrounding the youth mental health crisis, with suicide being the second leading cause of death among adolescents.
The study extracts data from the nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the largest long-term study of brain development in the United States.
It collected screen time data for 11,633 children aged between nine and 11 who were followed for two years.
The children answered questions about their time spent on six different screen time modalities as well as suicidal behaviours.
