TY - JOUR
T1 - Young Adolescents’ Digital Technology Use and Mental Health Symptoms
T2 - Little Evidence of Longitudinal or Daily Linkages
AU - Jensen, Michaeline
AU - George, Madeleine J.
AU - Russell, Michael R.
AU - Odgers, Candice L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The study was supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant T32-HD07376 (to M. Jensen), National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant P30-DA023026 (to the Center for the Study of Adolescent Risk and Resilience), the Jacobs Foundation, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - This study examines whether 388 adolescents’ digital technology use is associated with mental-health symptoms during early adolescence to midadolescence. Adolescents completed an initial Time 1 (T1) assessment in 2015, followed by a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) via mobile phone in 2016–2017 that yielded 13,017 total observations over 5,270 study days. Adolescents’ T1 technology use did not predict later mental-health symptoms. Adolescents’ reported mental health was also not worse on days when they reported spending more versus less time on technology. Little was found to support daily quadratic associations (whereby adolescent mental health was worse on days with little or excessive use). Adolescents at higher risk for mental-health problems also exhibited no signs of increased risk for mental-health problems on higher technology use days. Findings from this EMA study do not support the narrative that young adolescents’ digital technology usage is associated with elevated mental-health symptoms.
AB - This study examines whether 388 adolescents’ digital technology use is associated with mental-health symptoms during early adolescence to midadolescence. Adolescents completed an initial Time 1 (T1) assessment in 2015, followed by a 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) via mobile phone in 2016–2017 that yielded 13,017 total observations over 5,270 study days. Adolescents’ T1 technology use did not predict later mental-health symptoms. Adolescents’ reported mental health was also not worse on days when they reported spending more versus less time on technology. Little was found to support daily quadratic associations (whereby adolescent mental health was worse on days with little or excessive use). Adolescents at higher risk for mental-health problems also exhibited no signs of increased risk for mental-health problems on higher technology use days. Findings from this EMA study do not support the narrative that young adolescents’ digital technology usage is associated with elevated mental-health symptoms.
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U2 - 10.1177/2167702619859336
DO - 10.1177/2167702619859336
M3 - Article
C2 - 31929951
AN - SCOPUS:85071455893
SN - 2167-7026
VL - 7
SP - 1416
EP - 1433
JO - Clinical Psychological Science
JF - Clinical Psychological Science
IS - 6
ER -
