Screen Time Effects on Adolescent Mental health – STEAM
Screen time effects on adolescent mental health (STEAM) is an umbrella name encompassing the research activities that NASP that explores adolescents’ digital health behaviors. The project aims to increase our understanding of how people use digital screens and what effects this have on their mental health.
The STEAM research project focuses on how screen time affects young people and health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and suicidality, via complex psychological phenomena, including emotion regulation, sleep, resilience, social needs, and personal identification.
Current research indicates that the mental health effects of screen time, especially in longitudinal contexts, can be assumed to be small, even if clinically severe for a minority of individuals. Nevertheless, some effects can be seen in several larger population groups, which strongly indicates that this knowledge is important from a public health perspective too. Examples of such undesirable effects on adolescents’ sleep, problem coping, addictive screen properties, and effects of social media and exposure to stressful screen content. The goal of the STEAM project is to provide theoretical insights into these mechanisms, to give practical health advice and guidelines regarding the issue of screen-related health in adolescents.
Data sources
The data which is currently used within the STEAM project is from the Stockholm school data analysis project. We mainly conduct secondary analyses of student health questionnaire data, collected within a randomized controlled trial where over ten thousand junior high (Grade 7-9) students in Stockholm County participated, and were followed up after three and twelve months respectively. The data collection was carried out between the years 2016-2019.
In our analyses we focus on aspects of sleep and stress coping strategies (e.g., problem solving, emotion regulation, seeking emotional support), and how they impact or enable the association between screen time and subsequently increased depression. Our longitudinal study designs aim to help fill the knowledge gap usually underscored by researchers: “What is the cause and effect here?”
Research findings
Among the discoveries we have made so far in the STEAM project, is the moderating and mediating mechanism of coping. We observed that screen time increased adolescents’ depressive symptoms, seemingly because screen time lowered their tendency to apply problem-focused engagement coping strategies during stressful situations. We could also exclude the possibility of a reversed mediation relationship over time.
Before, we have also identified patterns that speak in favor of an undesirable association between adolescent girls’ use of Instagram and Snapchat, in terms of lowered self-esteem, as is seemed to increase generalized anxiety symptoms.