Electronic Media Use and Addiction among Youth in Psychiatric Clinic versus School Populations

Abstract

Objective: Electronic media use is highly prevalent among today's youth, and its overuse in the general population has been consistently associated with the presence of psychiatric symptoms. In contrast, little information exists about electronic media use among youth with psychiatric disorders. Our study aims to compare patterns of television and computer and gaming station use among youth in psychiatric clinic and community-based school populations. Method: Surveys were completed by 210 youth and parents, from school ( n = 110) and psychiatric clinic ( n = 100) populations. Duration and frequency of television, video gaming, and nongaming computer activities were ascertained, along with addictive features of use. Descriptive and comparative analyses were conducted, with a statistical threshold of P < 0.05. Results: Quantitative and qualitative differences were identified between the patterns of use reported by the 2 groups. The mean reported daily duration of exposure to electronic media use was 6.6 hours (SD 4.1) for the clinic sample and 4.6 hours (SD 2.6) for the school sample (P < 0.01). Self-reported rates of addictive patterns related to computer and gaming station use were similar between the 2 populations. However, the clinically based sample favoured more violent games, with 29% reporting playing mature-rated games, compared with 13% reported by the school-based sample ( P = 0.02). Youth with externalizing disorders expended greater time video gaming, compared with youth with internalizing disorders ( P = 0.01). Conclusions: Clinically based samples of youth with mental illnesses spend more time engaged in electronic media activities and are more likely to play violent video games, compared with youth in the general population. Further research is needed to determine the long-term implications of these differences.