RESEARCH ON HIGH SOCIAL MEDIA USE & ADHD IN TEENS

Most teens today own a smartphone and go online every day, and about a quarter of them use the internet "almost constantly,". Heavy use of texting, video chatting, and social media may contribute to the onset of symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in youth. Among a large group of adolescents who did not have symptoms of ADHD at baseline, frequent use of digital media was found to be associated with the emergence of new ADHD symptoms.

The average number of digital media activities used at a high-frequency rate was 3.62. The most common media activity was checking social media; 54.1% of students were in the high-use category on this activity. In other words, teens who were high frequency users of seven or 14 digital media platforms were more than twice as likely to develop ADHD symptoms than teens who did not use any media platform at a high frequency rate,

According to the researchers, higher-frequency use of digital media was significantly associated with subsequent symptoms of ADHD during the 24-month follow-up period (odds ratio, 1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06 - 1.16 per each additional digital media activity).

On average, ADHD symptoms emerged during follow-up in 9.5% of the students who reported engaging in seven high-frequency digital media activities and in 10.5% of those who reported engaging in all 14 high-frequency digital media activities, compared with only 4.6% of students who reported not engaging in any of the digital media activities.

The association between higher-frequency digital media use and subsequent ADHD symptoms was "statistically significant but modest," the researchers write. Stronger associations between media use and ADHD were found among adolescents who had more mental health symptoms, such as delinquent behavior and depressive symptoms.