Introduction: Adolescent mental health issues are rising alongside increased social media and online activity. While media narratives suggest a direct link, scientific literature shows mixed associations. Current research in this area is limited in that it primarily focuses on time spent online and lacks understanding of longitudinal associations.
Purpose: Recognizing online engagement as a normative part of human development, the study aims to elucidate how smartphone engagement relates to future well-being with the goal of identifying targets for prevention, promotion, and intervention initiatives.
Method: This study utilizes data from an ongoing pilot project. The current sample consists of adolescents (n=53) ages 13-15 years old from the United States (53% male; 47% female). Severity of depression and anxiety were assessed via a self-report survey instrument. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys assessed mood and smartphone engagement every day for 21 days. Average scores across the 21-day EMA survey constructs were correlated with subsequent anxiety and depression to begin to understand patterns of associations between smartphone engagement and mental health among adolescents.
Results: Higher exposure to mature content on a smartphone was correlated with higher reports of subsequent anxiety (r(n=23)=0.57; p=.004). We also found preliminary evidence of differences in smartphone engagement by sex. Males (M=3.16) reported playing interactive games on their smartphones significantly more than females (M=2.43; t(46)=-2.29, p=.026). There were trends approaching significance where females (M=3.10) reported getting on their smartphones to escape reality more frequently than males (M=2.58; t(46)=-1.99, p=.052) and males (M=2.30) reported seeing discriminatory content on their smartphones more frequently than females (M=1.85; t(45)=1.73, p=.090).
Conclusions: These findings support patterns of associations between smartphone engagement and subsequent mental health for adolescents age 13-15. Final analyses will also explore the possibility of adaptive pathways between smartphone engagement and youth competencies as well as additional maladaptive pathways to other risk behaviors