‘Unhealthy preoccupation with phones linked to teenage anxiety and depression’

Teenagers who are unhealthily preoccupied with their smartphones are more likely to be anxious, depressed and suffer insomnia, a new UK study suggests.

Around one in five older teenagers display “problematic smartphone use” and many are crying out for help to cut down on their usage, experts from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London found.

Families can work together to curb excessive mobile phone use, experts said. This could including turning off notifications on certain apps, keeping smartphones out of the bedroom and limiting screen time by putting their smartphone on “do not disturb or airplane” mode.

And parents whose children are getting their first smartphones could help by explaining the potential links of excessive use highlighted in the new study, researchers suggested.

While many parents would colloquially refer to excessive smartphone use in their children as an “addiction”, academics have not used this phrase in the study because it is a clinical term. The new study focused on problematic smartphone use, or PSU.

The researchers defined PSU as “subjective loss of control over use”, a pre-occupation with use and neglect of responsibilities or meaningful activities in favour of use, among other factors.

The new work involved two separate studies. The first, published in Acta Paediatrica, examined data on pupils aged 16 to 18 at five schools across London, the East Midlands and the south west of England.

Some 657 teenagers took part and 19% were found to have PSU.

Of the 123 that reported PSU, some 43% reported that they had symptoms of anxiety. This compared to a quarter (25%) of teens without PSU.

Statistical analysis on the data show that those who were deemed to have PSU were twice as likely to report symptoms of anxiety.

Meanwhile, some 56% of teenagers with PSU reported symptoms of depression, compared to 29% of the youngsters without PSU.

Analysis suggests that younger people deemed to engage in PSU were three times more likely to report depressive symptoms compared to those without.

Researchers found that teenagers with PSU were 64% more likely to report symptoms on insomnia.

Some 31% of youngsters who engaged in problematic smartphone use wanted help cutting down on their use.

Meanwhile the academics performed a second analysis, published in BMJ Mental Health, on a smaller group of teenagers – 62 pupils aged 13-16 from two London schools were tracked for a month.

The research team also found that an increase in PSU was linked to an increase in anxiety and depression.

The authors identified the most popular strategies among youngsters for curbing smartphone use which include: putting their phone on silent; turning off notifications; using the do not disturb and airplane functions and leaving their phone in another room at bedtime.

The strategies deemed least effective among teenagers were restrictions to specific apps; using a locked box during revision and turning on “greyscale” to remove colours from the screen.

Dr Nicola Kalk, senior author on both studies, said: “I would say that while there are limitations to this data, it does contribute to an accumulation of evidence that suggests that a proportion of teenagers use their smartphone in a way that is starting to look more and more like an addiction”.

She added: “If I had a teenager who had just acquired her first smartphone, the conversation might go something like: ‘There is some evidence that some teenagers start getting a bit addicted to their phones, and if this happens it can really increase their anxiety and make and make them feel quite depressed. You’re having this new bit of tech, shall we discuss limits around it and ways you can stop that developing? Or if it does develop, limit your use’.”

First author of the study Professor Ben Carter added: “A consistent amount (of teenagers) were found to have PSU – it’s not everyone, it’s the minority.

“And in that minority, the increased odds of having anxiety and depression were quite large. It was double in anxiety, three times in depression.

“Those with PSU are five times more likely want help and support to cut down so they are recognizing they are struggling, and they are asking for help to do something about it.”

Dr Kalk added: “Smartphones are fun and useful, and we’re developing them all the time. As an addiction psychiatrist, I would say that some human beings get into trouble with things that are fun and we need to help them.”

Strategies parents can deploy to tackle problematic use could involve talking about smartphone use and asking what tactics their teen uses to limit their use; highlighting what other youngsters have said about their own use and offering other support including providing different activities and practical solutions such as buying an alarm clock so the phone can be kept out of the bedroom.

It may also help to tackle the issue as a “family endeavour”, she said.

“I would be very open to the teenager calling me out on my smartphone use and wanting it to be a shared or family endeavour,” Dr Kalk said.

“If the the family can develop a culture of of of limits around smartphone use, that’s going to be more effective than telling the teenager that they need to do something different from everyone else.”

Prof Carter added: “As a family, you could take the notifications off number of these devices, and as a family, you could collectively, keep your devices out of the bedroom.”