Culture Post: Early Smartphone Access Harms Developing Minds

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Care about your kid’s well-being? Then it’s best not to give them a smartphone until they’re a full-fledged teenager, a major new study says.

Kids given a smartphone when they were younger than 13 tend to have poorer mental health and well-being, researchers report in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.

Specifically, people between 18 and 24 who got their first smartphone at 12 or younger had higher odds of suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, poorer emotional regulation, and low self-worth, researchers report.

Early exposure to toxic social media explains much of the link between young smartphone access and poorer mental health, researchers said. Other contributing factors may include cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 100,000 young adults around the world as part of the Global Mind Project, an ongoing research effort aimed at assessing the effects of modern society on mental health.

Each of the participants filled out a questionnaire to help determine their Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) – a measurement of their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being.

The team focused on members of Generation Z  born between 1997 and 2012 who were the first to grow up with smartphones and social media from early childhood.

Results show that young adults who got their first smartphone before becoming teens had lower MHQ scores than those who got a phone later.

In addition, the younger a person got their first smartphone, the worse their mental health and overall well-being, researchers said.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/early-smartphone-access-harms-developing-minds-study-warns

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