A new study has found that teenagers who use their smartphones excessively are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and insomnia. Researchers at King's College in the United Kingdom found that young people who say they are addicted to their phones are twice as likely to report symptoms of anxiety and are three times more likely to develop depression than those who don't. control how much they use their phones.
Modern society is closely related to the use of smartphones. But a recent study highlights the link between their excessive use and the risk to mental health in teenagers.
Anxiety, depression and insomnia are all linked to “problematic smartphone use”. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at King's College in the United Kingdom, based on the responses of 657 teenagers aged 16 to 18 and the responses of 69 children aged 13 to 16 over a period of four weekly.
“The problematic use of smartphones has forced researchers to describe a model of their use. There are some similarities with the way people talk about their addictions to gambling or online games. The study found that the features are: the subject loses control over the use, the smartphone gains dominance in their life, so they are spending more time with their phone giving up for example sleep or physical activity. They continue to do so despite being aware of the downsides,” says the co-author of the study. Dr. Nicola Kalk.
The researchers concluded that young people who said they were more addicted to their phones were twice as likely to report symptoms of anxiety and were three times more likely to suffer from depression than those who were not.
There's a difference, researchers say, between simply spending time on a phone and problematic smartphone use.
Problematic smartphone use affects a minority of teenagers, but they experience higher levels of mental health problems, according to the study's authors.
“Those who reported problematic use were twice as likely to suffer from anxiety and three times as likely to suffer from depression,” says Dr Kalk.
As for how to reduce the amount of time teenagers spend on smartphones, Dr. Kalk recommends that parents sit down with their children to discuss this issue and develop a healthy routine at home.
