Smartphone Use and Mental Health among Youth: It Is Time to Develop Smartphone-Specific Screen Time Guidelines

Abstract

Smartphone use has become increasingly popular and almost all age cohorts engage in smartphone usage for a wide variety of activities. This study aims to investigate the relationship between high smartphone use and mental health among youth and in two urban centres in Canada. This study is part of the Smart Platform, a digital epidemiological and citizen science initiative. Citizen scientists provided all data via their own smartphones using a custom-built smartphone application. The baseline questionnaire included measures of smartphone screen time behaviours (internet use, gaming, and texting), demographic characteristics, and health outcomes including anxiety, suicide ideation, feelings of depression, and self-rated health. Binary regression models determined the relationship between smartphone use and mental health measures. Among the 437 participants (13–21 years old), 71.2% reported high total smartphones use during a typical week (5 weekdays and 2 weekend days). High weekday and high weekly total smartphone use were associated with an almost two times higher risk of screening positive for anxiety, while high weekend gaming and high total smartphone use were associated with an almost three times higher risk of suicide ideation. Moreover, high weekend total smartphone use was also associated with an almost three times higher risk of poor self-rated mental health. Our findings suggest that high smartphone use’s association with mental health varies by type of activity as well as type of day (weekday/weekend day). Smartphone usage among youth has become near universal and it is important to factor in variations in smartphone usage’s impact on mental health in developing smartphone-specific screen time guidelines by taking into context both type of activities, as well as type of day (weekday/weekend day).