Tweens who spend more time on screens have a higher likelihood of developing disruptive behavior disorders, with social media having an especially strong influence, a new UC San Francisco-led study published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found.
Social media use was most likely to be linked to conduct disorder, while other forms of screen use - such as watching videos and television, playing video games, and texting - were more likely to be associated with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).
Conduct disorder is characterized by violating others' basic rights or societal rules with actions such as bullying, vandalism and stealing, while ODD is marked by a pattern of angry or irritable mood, argumentative or defiant behavior, and vindictiveness.
Researchers collected data on screen use, then evaluated for behavior disorders one year later. Each hour of social media was linked with a 62% higher prevalence of conduct disorder, while television, video games, video chat, and texting were linked with a 14% to 21% higher prevalence of ODD.
"Social media platforms can encourage bullying and aggression, which may contribute to the development of conduct disorder in children," said Jason Nagata, MD, lead study author and assistant professor of pediatrics at UCSF.
"Children can be exposed to violent content on social media through ads even if they are not searching for it," said Nagata. "If kids do search for violence, algorithms will feed back even more disturbing content and children can get stuck in cycles of toxicity."
Watching movies and playing video games, on the other hand, may displace sleep and physical activity as well as reduce social support, he said, which could explain the tie to ODD.
In another recent study
