A recent study by researchers at Cornell, Columbia, and University of California- Berkeley links addictive screen use by adolescents to an increase in suicidal behaviors. The study followed 4,285 U.S. adolescents over a four-year period, and the results imply overwhelmingly that the key element driving risk of suicidal behavior is not total time but rather addictive use of social media, mobile phones, and video games.
“This is the first study to identify that addictive use is important, and is actually the root cause, instead of time,” said lead author Yunyu Xiao, assistant professor of psychiatry and population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College.
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