• Preventive medicine · Jan 2023

    Digital screen time and suicidality during high school: How important is cyberbullying? A mediation analysis using the youth risk behavioral surveillance survey, 2011-2019.

    • Dale S Mantey, R Andrew Yockey, and Andrew E Springer.
    • Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science, University of Texas School of Public Health, 1616 Guadalupe, Suite 6.300, Austin, TX 78701, USA; Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Campus, Austin, TX, USA. Electronic address: dale.s.mantey@uth.tmc.edu.
    • Prev Med. 2023 Jan 1; 166: 107330107330.

    AbstractElevated digital screen time (i.e., 2+ hours per day) is associated with suicidal ideations, planning, and attempts during adolescence. Recent studies suggest quality, rather than duration, of digital screen time is most impactful on adolescent mental health. We investigate the role of cyberbullying victimization on the relationship between elevated digital screen time and risk factors for completed suicide. We pooled five years of biennial Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance (YRBS) survey data (2011-2019). Participants were n = 73,011 high school students in the United States (US). Elevated digital screen time reflected spending 3 h (or more) per day on leisure, digital media. Outcome variables were: (1) feeling sad/hopeless; (2) suicidal ideation; (3) suicidal planning; and (4) suicide attempt. Structural equation models (SEMs) tested the mediating effects of self-reported online bullying victimization (i.e., cyberbullying) on the effect of elevated digital screen time on suicidality. We controlled for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and survey year. Subsample analyses stratified by sex were also conducted. Overall, 40.5% of high school students reported elevated digital screen time and 15.4% reported cyberbullying. Cyberbullying mediated a substantial proportion of the relationship between digital screen time and feeling sad/hopeless (16%), suicidal ideation (18%), planned suicide attempt (18%), and past suicide attempt (26%), among high school students, controlling for covariates. Similar mediating effects were observed in models stratified by sex. Findings reinforce prior research demonstrating that the quality of leisure, digital media strongly influences the relationship between digital screen time and mental health during adolescence. Findings need replication via longitudinal designs.Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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