Frequency of Text Messaging and Adolescents' Mental Health Symptoms Across 4 Years of High School
Open accessAbstract
Purpose The aim of the study was to examine the concurrent and longitudinal associations between adolescents' text messaging frequency and mental health symptoms across 4 years of high school. Methods A total of 203 adolescents (aged 14-18 years) consented and were provided smartphones across 4 years of high school. Using billing records, daily frequencies of text messaging were created for each year. Adolescents reported on their mental health symptoms (internalizing, externalizing, social problems, and inattention) each summer. Results Multilevel analyses tested the between- and within-person associations between texting and mental health symptoms. Between-person analyses revealed an association only between externalizing symptoms and texting. Girls who texted more (vs. less) frequently reported more externalizing and inattention symptoms, whereas there were no significant associations for boys. There were no significant within-person concurrent associations between texting and symptoms. Autoregressive latent cross-lagged model with structured residuals testing the longitudinal, bidirectional associations also did not find significant relations across 4 years of adolescence. Conclusions Across analyses, few robust associations emerged. Adolescent girls who text messaged more frequently reported greater externalizing and inattention symptoms. Contrasting the popular narrative that smartphones cause depression, this study did not find any consistent within-person or longitudinal associations between texting and mental health symptoms across adolescence. Research on the content, rather than quantity, of texts and device use is necessary to understand the potential effects on development.
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- Authors
- George, M. J., Beron, K., Vollet, J. W., Burnell, K., Ehrenreich, S. E., & Underwood, M. K.
- Affiliations
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
- Duke University (US)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- Corresponding author
- George, Madeleine J.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescent Health
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-02
- Volume
- 68
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 324-330
- ISSN
- 1054-139X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9393042
- OpenAlex
- W3046476110
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescent Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- text messaging, adolescents, psychiatric symptoms, externalizing problems, inattention, internalizing problems, social problems, smartphone use, gender differences, longitudinal associations, billing records, high schools
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Health, Schools, Text Messaging
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