Screen time is a poor predictor of suicide risk, Rutgers researchers find

(Press-News.org) For parents trying to shield their children from online threats, limiting screen time is a common tactic. Less time scrolling, the rationale goes, means less exposure to the psychological dangers posed by social media. 

But research from Rutgers University-New Brunswick upends this assumption. Writing in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jessica L. Hamilton, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the School of Arts and Sciences, reports that screen time has no effect on whether adolescents contemplated suicidal thoughts.   

Instead, it’s the content they engage with and the experiences they have that makes all the difference. 

“The amount of time a teenager spends on social media appears to be a poor predictor of suicidal ideation,” Hamilton said. “Given that, we should be paying more attention to how social media makes users feel.” 

Hamilton said that given these findings, parents, policymakers and technology companies should rethink their approaches to keeping kids safe online. For instance, parents can have conversations about how their teenager experiences social media, while lawmakers and policymakers should work to enhance features that promote connectedness. 

“Social media is how teens socialize, and being without social media can mean missing out on positive experiences, like connecting with friends and peers, which actually protected against having suicidal thoughts” she said. 

To assess how positive and negative social media experiences affect suicidal thoughts, Hamilton and colleagues developed a study to capture individual use patterns and emotional responses.  

Sixty high schoolers 14 to 17 years of age were recruited nationwide. Over an eight-week period, participants completed surveys three times a day about their emotional responses to content and whether they had suicidal thoughts, and weekly surveys of how much time they spent on social media. 

Examples of positive social media experiences included content that left respondents feeling supported, inspired and encouraged – such as an uplifting message or comment to a post. Conversely, negative content – cyberbullying, for instance – generated feelings of sadness, exclusion or inadequacy.  

On days when teens reported more frequent negative social media experiences, they were more likely to report suicidal ideation, while more positive social media experiences were associated with a lower likelihood of having suicidal ideation. There were no measurable effects of screen time on suicidal thoughts. 

“Our results highlight that targeting negative social media experiences and augmenting the positive experiences on social media may be critical targets to improve teens’ mental health and prevent suicide, rather than focusing on limiting social media screen time,” the researchers wrote.  

The findings are important for several reasons. First, the study model collected data at the individual level, which enabled mapping of personal social media habits and sentiment. Most research into social media as a risk factor for suicidal ideation tends to focus on large datasets that can only capture macro trends at the population level. 

Second, the findings highlight the less-discussed role that positive social media experiences have on teen well-being. 

“We need to move beyond social media screen time as the answer if we want to reduce teen suicide risk and promote their mental health,” Hamilton said.  

The research is part of a larger study, the PLUS-2 project – Pathways Linking Use of Social Media to Teen Outcomes – which is studying the relationship between social media, sleep and suicide risk. PLUS-2 began at Rutgers in 2022 with a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Other studies in the series include an analysis of smartphone use tracking apps, and suicide risks for teens of color following exposure to racism, bullying or harassment on social media. 

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