Is more screen time always bad for adolescents?
Parents are often concerned that too much screen time (e.g., time spent looking at social media apps on smartphones, monitors while gaming, or TV while watching series or movies) may negatively affect the mental health of their kids. There is indeed ample psychological research that supports this idea. For example, a recent integration of meta-analyses containing data from more than 1.9 million people showed a statistically significant association between increased time spent on social media and depression (Sanders and co-workers, 2024). But is it really that easy, or could there be other, previously unidentified, factors that are crucial to understand the relationship between screen time and mental health?
A new study on time spent on social media, gaming, and TV, and mental health problems
A new study published October 2nd, 2025, in the scientific journal Psychiatry Research analyzed data from more than 23,000 Norwegian adolescents aged between 14 and 16 years, focusing on screen time for social media, gaming, and TV and mental health problems (Frei and co-workers, 2025).
The following mental health problems were considered:
- Substance abuse
- Schizophrenia
- bipolar disorder
- depression
- anxiety
- eating disorders
- hyperkinetic disorders
- pervasive developmental disorders
Importantly, the scientists who conducted the study entitled “The phenotypic and genetic relationship between adolescent mental health and time spent on social media, gaming, and TV,” also analyzed genetic data from the people involved in the study. Genes are a factor that is typically not analyzed in studies on screen time and mental health, but they may be highly relevant, as many mental health disorders are strongly affected by genetic variations between people.
What did the scientists find out?
Overall, 3,829 participants had a psychiatric diagnosis, while the others did not. For all three screen time types (TV, gaming, and social media), there were clear associations with mental illness:
1. Adolescents, who watched TV three to four hours a day or more had a significantly higher chance of having a psychiatric diagnosis compared to adolescents who watched less TV.
2. For gaming, adolescents who spent the least amount of time gaming had a lower chance of having a psychiatric diagnosis than other adolescents. In contrast, adolescents who played video games for three to four hours a day or more had a significantly higher chance of having a psychiatric diagnosis compared to adolescents who spent less time gaming.
3. For social media use, adolescents who spent the most time on social media, but also those who spent the least time on social media, had a significantly higher chance of having a psychiatric diagnosis compared to other adolescents.
In addition to formal psychiatric diagnoses, the scientists also considered self-reported symptoms by the participants in their analyses. It was found that spending three to four or more hours watching screens over a single day was associated with higher symptom severity scores.
In the last analyses, the scientists used the genetic data collected from the participants to determine their individual genetic risks for various mental health disorders. Interestingly, the risk scores for depression, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and anorexia nervosa showed significant associations with screen time. This suggests that the genetic risk for these disorders could also have an impact on screen time. The scientists who used advanced statistical models to find out, to which the association between screen time and mental health disorders could be attributable to genetic effects.
Takeaway: Consider genetics
When scientists find an association between social media use and mental health problems, it is typically hard to tell the direction of the effect. On the one hand, too much social media use may lead to loneliness and losing friends in real life, and this could then lead to mental problems. On the other hand, someone with mental health problems may have issues having a rich social life and then spends more time on social media because they are bored or want to find helpful advice.
The results of the study show that both ideas may be too simplistic and that, in fact, genetic liability for a disorder may also lead to liability for increased screen time. Moreover, the study found an interesting result in that adolescents with the lowest time on social media also had an increased risk for mental health issues. This may reflect that some adolescents with problems that affect social functioning, such as autism spectrum disorders, may have problems connecting with other people even on social media. An important finding that deserves more research!
Key points
• A new study investigated the association of screen time for social media, gaming and TV and mental health.
• The scientists also considered a large number of genetic influences on psychiatric disorders.
• Adolescents who spent 3 to 4 hours or more watching screens had a higher chance of having a mental disorder.
• Genetic influences explained a considerable amount of the association between screen time and mental health.