Addictive Screen Use Drives Mental Health Crisis Among American Adolescents, New Study Finds
American adolescents are facing an alarming mental health crisis, with nearly two in five high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, an article on Xinhua revealed. New data highlight that addictive screen use, rather than total screen time, is a critical factor driving this trend.
According to the article, a nonprofit news outlet focused on education, nearly 60 percent of parents rate their children’s mental health as “very or somewhat poor.” Experts emphasize that compulsive social media and mobile phone use contribute significantly to deep-rooted mental stress in young people.
Groundbreaking findings published on June 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association tracked nearly 4,300 American children over four years. The study revealed that adolescents exhibiting addictive patterns of social media, mobile phone, or video game use face twice the risk of suicidal behaviors compared to peers with low addictive use.
Dr. Yunyu Xiao, assistant professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and lead author, stressed that “addictive use is crucial and is actually the underlying issue, rather than just the amount of time spent.”
The research found that 31 percent of participants developed increasingly addictive social media use, while 25 percent showed similar patterns with mobile phones. Notably, total screen time at age 10 was not linked to later suicide-related outcomes; instead, compulsive usage patterns—such as inability to stop, distress when not using devices, or using screens to escape problems—were strongly associated with higher risks.
The study also highlighted disparities in mental health outcomes: addictive video game use correlated with internalizing symptoms, while social media addiction linked to externalizing behavioral problems. Children with high addictive social media use faced two to three times greater risk of suicidal behavior.
This crisis extends beyond individual cases. The 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the CDC found that one in five U.S. high school students seriously considered attempting suicide, underscoring the urgent need for targeted interventions addressing addictive screen behaviors.
