Excessive internet use linked to hyperactivity and conduct problems in children

Excessive internet use by children impacts their wellbeing, leading to concerns over their conduct and hyperactivity levels – and the effect is greater among those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

New research based on data from the Growing Up in Ireland study found there was a “sharp increase” in engagement with social and media digital activities between the ages of nine and 13, from 41 per cent to 91 per cent, with “full saturation” by ages 17 and 18 when 99 per cent of those in the cohort were actively engaged with online activities.

The study, conducted by Melissa Bohnert of the Department of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin, alongside her colleague, Pablo Gracia, found that heavier use of screen time was also associated with increased negative effects, such as hyperactvitiy and conduct issues.

“Heavy levels of digital screen time (ie, 3+ hours daily) are associated with declines in wellbeing, particularly for external and prosocial functioning, while engagement in learning-oriented digital activities and gaming is associated with better adolescent outcomes,” it said.

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“Yet, low-SES [socioeconomic status] adolescents are globally more harmed than high-SES adolescents by their digital engagement, and high-SES adolescents benefit more from moderate levels of digital use and from engaging in learning-oriented digital activities.”

The study, called Digital use and socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent wellbeing, is based on data from 7,685 people born in 1998.

According to the research, published in the Journal of Adolescence: “Our findings show dramatic changes in digital usage across adolescence, but with marked differences by SES. Average digital screen-time increases markedly throughout our adolescent sample: jumping from only 27 min at age 9 to 136 min per weekday at age 17/18. It is not clear, however, whether this increase in digital screen-time is due to changing digital skills and parental mediation across developmental stages or to the changing digital landscape between 2007 and 2016, when digital technologies became exponentially more mobile, accessible, and ubiquitous.”

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Ms Bohnert, the lead author, said work was continuing to further examine the extent of online activity and its impacts on children, including those from a more recent cohort in the GUI study, those born in 2008.

Ms Bohnert said the data did not indicate why there were worse impacts for children from lower socioeconomic groups, with one theory being “differential parenting between different parenting backgrounds”.

“[Parents from] Higher SES have many things – higher digital knowledge, richer digital access, they can pass on this key knowledge and skills and practices and the best way to maximise the digital world while minimising risks,” she said.

Ms Bohnert said any approach to address these issues needed to be “multipronged”, involving both education at school and with parents at home. She said future research on children born in 2008 – after the advent of the smartphone – are likely to show those children have experienced even higher levels of digital usage.

[ Parents urged to ‘take back control’ as children spend time on digital devices ]

A previous piece of research conducted by Ms Bohnert found even more pervasive negative impacts among that younger group when it came to digital usage.

Separate research published this month found that for those aged 17 and 18, and then reviewed for depressive symptoms at age 20, high digital engagement was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms compared to moderate engagement, but only among young women.

That research, led by Prof Richard Layte of TCD, was also based on the 1998 GUI cohort.