Source: Thailand Medical News Nov 28, 2019 5 years, 3 weeks, 6 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes ago
A recent study by researchers Dr Boers, Afzali and Dr Conrod who are affiliated with CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal, reveals that social media use, television viewing and computer use are linked to an increase in
anxiety symptoms among
adolescents.
The research findings, published in academic outlet the
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, shows that a higher than average frequency of social media use, television viewing and computer use over four years predicts more severe symptoms of
anxiety over that same time frame. Over and above a potential common vulnerability to both sets of behaviours, the study demonstrates that if a teen experienced an increase in their social media use, television viewing and computer use in a given year which surpassed their overall average level of use, then his or her
anxiety symptoms also increased in that same year.
Furthermore, when
adolescents decreased their social media use, television viewing, and computer use, their symptoms of
anxiety became less severe. Thus, no lasting effects were found.
These results are interesting findings considering another recent publication by the same authors, reporting associations of social media use and television viewing on symptoms of depression, but not computer use. Thus, it appears that computer use is uniquely associated to increases in
anxiety, potentially in relation to using the computer for homework activities, but this needs further research, explains the study's lead author, Elroy Boers, post-doctoral researcher at UdeM's Department of Psychiatry.
This research could have important implications for how youth and families choose to regulate digital screen time in order to prevent and reduce symptoms of
anxiety. The study findings indicate social media use, television viewing, and computer use are predictors of anxiety in
adolescence. While our results are based on observational research design, the nature of statistical approach that we used to test possible causal effects robustly controlled for any potential common underlying vulnerability to high levels of screen time and anxiety. Nevertheless, more research is needed, including research that includes experimental designs, to confirm that it is exposure to
social media, television, and computer use that is causing elevated rates of
anxiety in young people," said Dr. Patricia Conrod, senior author and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal, and CHU Ste Justine.
The research team followed almost four thousand Canadian teenagers from age 12 to 16 who were part of the Co-Venture Trial. Each year of high school, teens were asked to self-report time spent in front of digital screens and specified amount of time spent engaging in four different types of screen time activities (social media, television, video gaming and computer use).
Furthermore, the teenagers completed self-reported questionnaires on various anxiety symptoms at ages 12 to 16. Then, after data c
ollection, state-of-the-art statistical analyses were performed to assess the between-person, with-person, and lagged-within person associations between screen time and
anxiety in
adolescence. These analyses augment standard analyses by modelling the year-to-year changes of both sets of problems, thus, taking into account possible common vulnerability and possible natural developmental changes in each set of behaviours or symptoms.
Dr Conrod told
Thailand Medical News, "These findings suggest that one way to help teens manage
anxiety could be to help them limit the amount of time they spend in front screens."
Dr Conrod and her colleagues hope that this study helps guide the design of new intervention strategies for at-risk youth, before
anxiety symptoms become clinically significant.
Reference : Elroy Boers et al, Temporal Associations of Screen Time and Anxiety Symptoms Among Adolescents, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2019). DOI: 10.1177/0706743719885486
