Association Between Screen Time, Social Support, and Mental Health in Adolescents: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Sample in 2022

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to estimate the association between screen time, social/emotional support, and mental health among adolescents using data collected during COVID-19.

METHODS: The study used the 2022 National Health Interview Survey’s Sample Child Interview and focuses on adolescents (aged 12 to 17). The outcome measures included (1) the frequency of children seeming sad or depressed on a scale from never to daily, and (2) a life satisfaction score on a scale from 0 to 10. The key independent variables were whether a child had over two hours of daily screen time (i.e., time spent “in front of a TV, computer, cellphone, or other electronic device watching programs, playing games, accessing the internet, or using social media”), and whether the child always received the social or emotional support they need. Other confounders were age, sex, race/ethnicity, self-reported general health, BMI, family income, parent education, and urban/rural residence. Ordinary least squares regressions with survey weights were applied. The results were nationally representative.

RESULTS: The final sample included 2,599 adolescents. Among them, 81% reported over two hours of daily screen time, and over 76% reported always receiving social support. The results showed that having over two hours of daily screen time was significantly associated with higher frequencies of seeming depressed and lower scores of life satisfaction. Children who had less than two hours of daily screen time and always received social support had the lowest association with high frequencies of seeming depressed (coef: 0.74, 95%CI: [0.6, 0.88], p<0.001) and the highest association with high life satisfaction scores (coef: 1.27, 95%CI: [1.04, 1.5], p<0.001) compared to those with over two hours of daily screen time and didn’t always receive social/emotional support.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested that managing screen time effectively and providing robust social support will benefit the mental health of adolescents during the pandemic.