Study details

For the study, researchers used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a large-scale longitudinal project that followed over 4,000 U.S. children beginning at ages 9 to 10 across a four-year period. The ABCD study tracked behavioral and cognitive development, including screen use patterns and mental health symptoms.

The researchers evaluated "addictive use" through standardized self-report questionnaires that asked children to agree or disagree with statements such as:

• "I spend a lot of time thinking about social media apps or planning to use the social media apps."
• "I try to use the social media app less, but I can't."
• "I feel stressed and or upset if I am not allowed to use my social media apps."
• "I use it so much already it has a bad effect on my schoolwork."

These responses allowed researchers to group children into usage trajectories over time — such as stable low use, increasing addictive use, or persistent high addiction.

The study found that 25% of participants showed rising addiction levels to social media, 41% reported high addiction to video games, and around 50% showed increasing addiction to mobile phones. 

By year four, the study found that 17.9% of participants reported suicidal ideation and 5.1% reported suicidal behaviors, including planning or attempts. Importantly, total screen time at baseline was not associated with suicide-related outcomes, suggesting that compulsive patterns of use — not overall duration — pose greater mental health risk.

Commentary

Experts say the study's findings offer an urgent reminder that when it comes to teen mental health, how screens are used matters more than how long they're used.

The study "shows that elements of addiction related to screen use are more strongly predictive of poorer mental health and even suicide risk compared to just screen time," said Jason Nagata, a pediatrician at the University of California San Francisco and editorial coauthor of the study. "Parents, teachers, clinicians should be on the lookout for warning signs for screen addictions, particularly as they may relate to higher depression risk or suicide risk in teenagers."

Other experts underscored the need to move beyond screen-time metrics.

"Some kids might spend their time on screen reading the news, and some might be trolling some pretty dangerous sites," said psychologist Mitch Prinstein. "So it's really hard to know what to make of screen time as a risk factor."

Psychologist Mary Alvord emphasized the link between screen avoidance and mental health: "They may be talking to a friend, but are they talking to a friend I-R-L, or are they talking to an avatar created by AI?"

One screen use item read, "I play video games so I can forget about my problems," a behavior Alvord said reflects symptoms of both anxiety and depression.