Screen addiction-suicide link

August 15, 2025

Here’s alarming news for parents.

Research from the US shows that teenagers who are highly addicted to screen devices have higher risks of mental health problems and suicide.

The study, conducted by Dr John Mann and team, investigated 4285 youngsters - aged between nine and ten at the beginning of the study – over a four-year period. The researchers were interested in how the youths’ patterns of addictive screen use changed over time.

To assess addictive behaviour, they considered feelings of being unable to stop using a device, experiencing distress when not using it or using it to escape from problems.

The study showed high levels of addiction. Almost a third of the participants had increasing trajectories of addictive use for social media and almost a quarter had increasing trajectories of addictive use for mobile phones over the four-year period.

Further, these increasing trajectories of addictive use were associated with higher risks of suicidal behaviours as well as mental health problems, such as anxiousness, depression, aggressiveness or inattentiveness.

‘Parents may want to pay more attention to how their kids are using their digital devices and consider having them evaluated for signs of addictive use,’ said Dr. Yuan Meng, one of the study’s authors.

Interestingly, the study did not show that the total amount of time spent on social media, mobile phones and video games was associated with future suicide-related or mental health outcomes. What mattered most was how youth were engaging with screens—especially whether their use showed signs of compulsion, distress or loss of control.

Xiao Y, Meng Y, Brown TT, Keyes KM, Mann JJ. Addictive Screen Use Trajectories and Suicidal Behaviors, Suicidal Ideation, and Mental Health in US Youths. JAMA. 2025;334(3):219–228. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.7829

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