Addictive Screen Use Trajectories and Suicidal Behaviors, Suicidal Ideation, and Mental Health in US Youths

Importance: Increasing child and adolescent use of social media, video games, and mobile phones has raised concerns about potential links to youth mental health problems. Prior research has largely focused on total screen time rather than longitudinal addictive use trajectories.

Objectives: To identify trajectories of addictive use of social media, mobile phones, and video games and to examine their associations with suicidal behaviors and ideation and mental health outcomes among youths.

Design, setting, and participants: Cohort study analyzing data from baseline through year 4 follow-up in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (2016-2022), with population-based samples from 21 US sites.

Exposures: Addictive use of social media, mobile phones, and video games using validated child-reported measures from year 2, year 3, and year 4 follow-up surveys.

Main outcomes and measures: Suicidal behaviors and ideation assessed using child- and parent-reported information via the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed using the parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist.

Results: The analytic sample (n = 4285) had a mean age of 10.0 (SD, 0.6) years; 47.9% were female; and 9.9% were Black, 19.4% Hispanic, and 58.7% White. Latent class linear mixed models identified 3 addictive use trajectories for social media and mobile phones and 2 for video games. Nearly one-third of participants had an increasing addictive use trajectory for social media or mobile phones beginning at age 11 years. In adjusted models, increasing addictive use trajectories were associated with higher risks of suicide-related outcomes than low addictive use trajectories (eg, increasing addictive use of social media had a risk ratio of 2.14 [95% CI, 1.61-2.85] for suicidal behaviors). High addictive use trajectories for all screen types were associated with suicide-related outcomes (eg, high-peaking addictive use of social media had a risk ratio of 2.39 [95% CI, 1.66-3.43] for suicidal behaviors). The high video game addictive use trajectory showed the largest relative difference in internalizing symptoms (T score difference, 2.03 [95% CI, 1.45-2.61]), and the increasing social media addictive use trajectory for externalizing symptoms (T score difference, 1.05 [95% CI, 0.54-1.56]), compared with low addictive use trajectories. Total screen time at baseline was not associated with outcomes.

Conclusions and relevance: High or increasing trajectories of addictive use of social media, mobile phones, or video games were common in early adolescents. Both high and increasing addictive screen use trajectories were associated with suicidal behaviors and ideation and worse mental health.

Author/s:

Yunyu Xiao, PhD, Yuan Meng, PhD, Timothy T. Brown, PhD

Growing Health Concern Regarding Gambling Addiction in the Age of Sportsbooks

Erin Blanchette — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 21:51:18 +0000

Date Added:

April 8, 2025

Journal/Publication:

JAMA Internal Medicine

Publisher:

American Medical Association

Publication Date:

April 1, 2025

Issue:

Volume:

185

Pages:

382-389

URL:

Growing Health Concern Regarding Gambling Addiction in the Age of Sportsbooks

Type:

Clinical Research Results

Format:

Article

DOI (1):

10.1001/jamainternmed.2024.8193

Keywords

PMID (1):

39960737

MeSH

Gambling* / epidemiology

Gambling* / psychology

Internet

Sports* / legislation & jurisprudence

Behavior

Addictive* / epidemiology

With the spread of sportsbook gambling, be aware that the incidence of gambling addiction and its consequences are likely increase. James W. Mold, MD, MPH

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Importance: The US Supreme Court decision Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed states beyond Nevada to legalize sports betting, including online wagers. How sports betting has evolved and its association with gambling harms has not been studied.

Objective: To describe how US sports betting evolved after Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association and offer insights into the potential health effects of sportsbooks, which are platforms for wagering on sporting events.

Exposure: Enactment of (1) Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association nationally and (2) the opening of retail or online sportsbooks in states.

Design, setting, and participants: In this longitudinal study, aggregate US internet search trends for gambling addiction and wagers on sports were described before and after the emergence of legalized sportsbooks.

Main outcomes and measures: Internet searches per 10 million queries that mentioned gambling and addiction, addict, anonymous, or hotline (such as gambling addiction hotline) made to Google from January 1, 2016, through June 30, 2024.

Results: The number of states with operational sportsbooks increased from 1 during 2017 to 38 during 2024. Total sports wagers increased from $4.9 billion during 2017 to $121.1 billion during 2023, with 94% of wagers during 2023 being placed online. There were 23% (95% CI, 15%-30%) more searches nationally for gambling addiction help-seeking after Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association. Massachusetts (47%; 95% CI, 21%-79%), New Jersey (34%; 95% CI, 21%-45%), New York (37%; 95% CI, 26%-50%), and Pennsylvania (50%; 95% CI, 35%-66%) each had more searches than expected after the opening of any sportsbooks in their state. Additional analyses suggest the opening of online, vs retail, sportsbooks corresponded with a larger increase in searches.

Conclusions and relevance: The results of this time series study suggest that access to sportsbooks, sports wagers, and potential help-seeking for gambling addiction increased substantially and highlight the need to address the health implications of sportsbooks, including recognition and treatment of gambling problems and their broader societal implications.

Author/s:

Atharva Yeola, Matthew R Allen, Nimit Desai, Adam Poliak, Kevin H Yang, Davey M Smith, John W Ayers