Cited by 158Impact of Technology on AdolescentsChild Development and Digital TechnologyChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 48 of the 49 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 38 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

There Is No Evidence That Associations Between Adolescents’ Digital Technology Engagement and Mental Health Problems Have Increased

Open access
Vuorre, Matti, Orben, Amy, Przybylski, Andrew K.·2021·Clinical Psychological Science

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Digital technology is ubiquitous in modern adolescence, and researchers are concerned that it has negative impacts on mental health that, furthermore, increase over time. To investigate whether technology is becoming more harmful, we examined changes in associations between technology engagement and mental health in three nationally representative samples. Results were mixed across types of technology and mental health outcomes: Technology engagement had become less strongly associated with depression in the past decade, but social-media use had become more strongly associated with emotional problems. We detected no changes in five other associations or differential associations by sex. There is therefore little evidence for increases in the associations between adolescents’ technology engagement and mental health. Information about new digital media has been collected for a relatively short time; drawing firm conclusions about changes in their associations with mental health may be premature. We urge transparent and credible collaborations between scientists and technology companies.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Across three large nationally representative samples, the paper finds little evidence that associations between adolescents’ technology engagement and mental health problems have increased over time. Results were mixed by technology and outcome, with some associations decreasing and one increasing, but changes were very small.

Key findings

  • In 2017, technology–mental health associations were generally weak, ranging from zero to about 0.15 SD; in YRBS, males at average device use reported suicide planning with 9% probability versus 11% at 1 SD above the mean (difference 2%, 95% CI [1.6%, 2.7%]).
  • No consistent increase over time: social media use became more strongly associated with emotional problems, but depression’s association with social media and TV decreased; no credible changes were detected in five other associations, and no changes differed by gender.
  • Where credible changes occurred, they were smaller than 0.01 SD per year; GAMs explained less than 3% of variance and indicated only two nonlinear changes: social media–emotional problems and TV–depression.

Methods

  • Analyzed three nationally representative datasets—Monitoring the Future, Understanding Society, and Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System—with a combined 430,561 participants, restricting to ages 10–15 where possible.
  • Outcomes included depression, conduct problems, emotional problems, and suicidal ideation/behaviour; predictors included TV viewing, social media use, and digital device use.
  • Estimated Bayesian models with year (centered at 2017), technology use, and their interaction, plus sex interactions; US models included random intercepts, YRBS used Bernoulli/probit models with random item parameters, and sensitivity analyses used generalized additive models.

Limitations

  • The paper states that between-person associations cannot support causal claims, that no covariates were included due to lack of strong theory and cross-dataset heterogeneity, and that self-report technology use is biased and noisy.
  • The paper states that newer technologies have a shorter observation window, making firm conclusions premature, and that the work may conflate between- and within-person associations or different levels of analysis.
  • Evident from the text: most analyses are cross-sectional except Understanding Society, and the study relies on self-reported mental health and technology use rather than objective usage data.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/2167702621994549

Cites

48 of 48 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

35 Own result · 22 Not checked yet · 19 Own interpretation · 9 Own method · 3 No basis given

Verify all 38 references — free account

Show all 49 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 24
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 20
  • The quote only partly states this claim. 1
39 of 39
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Any change over time in the technology–mental health association was linear over the study period.

    “We adopted the simplifying assumption that any change to that relationship had been linear over the time frame studied.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Relations between technology use and mental health were linear, and any changes in those relations were linear.

    “In our focal analyses we assumed linear relations between technology use and mental health and assumed that any changes to those relations would be linear.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Social media and similar digital technologies could have increasingly negative mental health effects over time because of their dynamic nature.

    “Therefore, it remains a reasonable, yet untested, assumption that their possible negative influence on mental health could be magnified over time by virtue of their dynamic nature.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    No suitable theory specifying causal relations between variables currently exists.

    “Currently, no good candidates for such a theory exist, and it was not our purpose here to offer one.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Large samples probably cause even tiny associations to have confidence intervals that exclude zero.

    “because the large sample sizes are likely to make even small relations’ confidence intervals exclude zero”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Understanding of social media and digital devices is constrained by how recently they appeared.

    “In the context of older technologies, such as TV, our knowledge of social media and digital device use is necessarily limited by their comparatively brief existence.”
6 of 6

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 49 references

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Furedi F., 2015, History Today, 65, 46
  2. Viner R., 2019, The health impacts of screen time: A guide for clinicians and parents
  3. Wertham F., 1954, Seduction of the innocent

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–151 of 151

Metadata

Authors
Vuorre, M., Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K.
Affiliations
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (GB)
Corresponding author
Przybylski, Andrew K.
Venue
Clinical Psychological Science
Published
2021-05-03
Volume
9
Issue
5
Pages
823-835
ISSN
  • 2167-7026 (ISSN-L)
  • 2167-7034
OpenAlex
W3136028244
Cited by
158
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 26 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 9
FWCI
34.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical Psychological Science (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
  • Apollo
Funders
  • Economic and Social Research Council (ES/T008709/1)
  • Hou Family Foundation
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
adolescent mental health, social media use, depression, emotional problems, temporal trends, gender differences

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