The Influence of Significant Screen Time on Mental Health Among Adolescents an integrative literature review

The Influence of Significant Screen Time on Mental Health Among Adolescents Caryn Connors and Stephanie Patrick Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth P. Anderson RN, PhD Background: The adolescent brain is impressionable and not fully developed, in a time when habits and possibly irreversible lifestyles has its origins. This is a crucial period in the adolescent life when educational performance and behavior can influence future promise for success and mental well-being. Anxiety and depression that is ever-present can lead to mortality and morbidity for this age group (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). Increased screen time \u3e2 hours a day (tablet, phone, computer, video games) adolescent may have a great potential to increase symptoms of anxiety and depression (Wu, et al., 2015). Objective: The purpose of this literature review is to synthesize the research and help close the knowledge gap on adolescent mental health status related to increased screen time (\u3e2 hours) by answering the following research question: “What are the negative effects of significant screen time on social and mental health in adolescents?” Methods: Integrative literature design (Whittemore and Knafl, 2005), A computerized search of the literature was conducted using CINAHL, PsychInfo, PubMed and ProQuest through the use of key terms including anxiety, depression, mental health, screen time and screen use. Studies included in the integrative literature review were published between the years of 2012-2018, available in the English language, accessible to DePaul students, reviewed through the scopes of medicine, nursing and psychology and focused on the mental health of adolescents related to increased screen time. Results: After examining the literature, the following themes were found to be relevant. Theme 1) Increased screen time directly correlates to decreased psychological well-being (p\u3c0.001, p= 0.032, P\u3c0.05, p\u3c0.001). Theme 2) Depressive symptomatology is more highly correlated with recreational computer use and video games versus television viewing (p\u3c 0.001, p\u3c0.05, p\u3c0.001) video game playing and computer use were associated with more severe symptoms of depression while video game playing was associated with more severe symptoms of anxiety. Theme 3) Increased physical activity was significantly associated with decreased psychological symptoms (p\u3c0.05), significant positive association between high physical activity rank and protective effects against depression and psychopathological symptoms. The major finding is increased (\u3e2 hours) of screen time i.e. tablet, computer, cell phone use, per day by adolescents has a significant negative impact on mental health outcomes, namely increased occurrence of anxiety and depression. Conclusion: The major limitations of this literature review include the lack of theoretical framework (7 studies) and lack of representativeness/generalizability (4 studies). The utilization of a conceptual framework such as Dorothea E. Orem’s Self-Care Theory (2017) is most applicable to direct future research studies. Proposed future research recommendation: larger, evenly gender distributed sample sizes as well as broken out screen activities. A return to the literature supports the findings that a maximum of 2 hours per day engaging in sedentary screen-based activity is recommended to decrease risk of developing social, physical and mental health disorders. The potential power of the media influence on youth may have detrimental effects where access should be monitored by adult parents Padilla & McLean, (2019) stated the following regarding the confusing relationship that is also complex in relation to teens “controlling and autonomy supportive restrictive and active parental media monitoring and time spent using media (media multitasking, social media, tv, video games, music, reading, texting, and internet), and then explored how time with media was linked to adolescents’ anxiety and depression” (p. 215). National Institutes of Health (2019) published a response to a study Netflix show “13 Reasons Why” suicides deaths. The calculated difference in observed and expected suicide deaths (10 to 17 years of age) was an excess of 137 between months of May 2017 and December 2017). Screen content may lead to teen suicide. The objective of this intervention of viewing show per the original study was to get teens to have open dialog for leading a mode of decreasing stigma associated with depression and suicide (Bridge et al., 2019). Key words: screen time, screen use, media, depression, anxiety, mental healt