Childhood internalizing, externalizing and attention symptoms predict changes in social and nonsocial screen time

While accumulating research has tested the hypothesis that screen time causes psychiatric symptoms in children, less attention has been paid to the hypothesis that children with psychiatric symptoms change their patterns of screen time and digital media use. We aimed to test whether children with psychiatric symptoms subsequently change their patterns of screen time and digital media use.

N = 9,066 children primarily aged 9-10 in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study at baseline and 1-year later. Psychiatric symptoms included internalizing, attention, and externalizing symptoms. Screen time was measured as ordinally defined weekday and weekend time on social and nonsocial [e.g., YouTube] digital media). Models assessed psychiatric symptoms as predictors of screen time, and screen time as predictors of psychiatric symptoms, controlled for baseline measures of each, sex, age, race/ethnicity, and income.

Children with psychiatric symptoms spent more time on non-social media one year later compared with peers. Considering total psychiatric problems, clinical levels of problems predicted higher levels of weekday (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.22-1.23) and weekend (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.09-1.11) nonsocial screen time. For nearly all analyses of psychiatric symptoms predicting screen time, associations were highest for a non-social screen time outcome rather than a social screen time outcome (Highest OR = 1.65, 95% CI 1.63-1.67, clinical rule breaking predicting weekday nonsocial screen time). Comparable magnitude associations were observed for social and nonsocial media use predicting future psychiatric symptoms, suggesting bidirectionality.

Children with psychiatric symptoms have different subsequent media use patterns, including higher rates of subsequent nonsocial engagement. Ensuring that ongoing data collection and analysis efforts attend to temporality and transitions in the relation between media use and psychiatric symptoms will accelerate progress in the field.