ADDICTIVE SCREEN USE AND YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH
Nov. 2025
A recent study reported important findings that advance understanding of the potential causal relationship between media use and suicidal ideation and behaviors in US youths. However, we believe that the assertion that total daily screen time is not associated with suicidal thoughts or behaviors is misleading. The categorical way that screen time was coded, with the highest level being “greater than 4 hours” and the reliance on self-report resulted in the highest screen time category (>4 hours) being curiously low. Indeed, 4 hours per day of overall screen time (across all devices) is below the median phone usage for passively sensed smartphone-only data widely considered to be the gold standard. Thus, not only was the cut point too low to capture excessive or problematic screen usage, but there are true concerns about the accuracy of the self-reporting. Even within their data, 27% of participants were in the high category for weekday use and 40% were in the high category for weekend use. This precludes discerning what effects there may be for people at the true “high” end of usage (eg, 85th or 95th percentiles). From a public health standpoint, we believe that “not focusing on screen time” for children who spend 9 or more hours per day on devices is ill advised.
CITE
Christakis DA, Hale L. Addictive Screen Use and Youth Mental Health. JAMA. Published online October 15, 2025.
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