A global study that included more than 100,000 young men revealed the association of a smartphone before the age of 13 with the deterioration of mental and luxury health in the early puberty.
The study found that young people between the ages of 18 and 24, who obtained their first smartphone at the age of 12 or less, were more likely to report suicide ideas, aggression, separation from reality, weak emotional organization, and low self -value. The researchers called for urgent measures to protect mental health for future generations.
The study was conducted by Sabine laboratories in the United States, which hosts the largest database in the world on mental health, and its results were published in the Journal of Human Development and Capabiles on July 20, and wrote about it.
“Our data indicates that owning smartphones at an early age – which is accompanied by frequent access to social media – is associated with a fundamental shift in mental health and luxury in the early puberty,” says Dr. Tara Thiajarajan, a neurologist, main author of the study and an institution and a large scientist of Sabine laboratories.
These connections are in the middle of several factors, including access to social media, electronic bullying, sleep disturbances, and poor family relationships, and this leads to symptoms in adulthood that differ from the symptoms of traditional mental health of depression and anxiety, and may be overlooked by studies that use standard examination tools.
These symptoms, which are the increase in aggression, separation from reality, and suicide ideas, can have severe social consequences with the increasing rates of young generations.
The researchers urged policy makers to follow a precautionary approach, such as tobacco regulations, by restricting the use of smartphones for those under the age of 13 years, imposing digital culture teaching, and applying institutional accountability.
Opportunities and fears
Since the first first decade of the 21st century, smartphones have reshaped how young people communicate, learn and create their identities. But besides these opportunities, concerns about how social media -backed algorithms backed by artificial intelligence of harmful content and encourage social comparison are increasing, also affecting other activities such as face -to -face interaction and sleep.
Although many social media platforms determine the minimum of the user, the user is 13 years old, the application of this decision is inconsistent. Meanwhile, the average age of owning a smartphone for the first time continues to decrease, as many children spend hours a day on their devices.
To conduct this new analysis, the Sabine team drew data from their “global mind” project, and then used the scale of the health of the mind; It is a self -evaluation tool that measures social, emotional, cognitive and physical health to create a general “health health” degree.
Their results showed the following:
- The most related symptoms included the possession of smartphones early: suicide ideas, aggression, separation from reality, and hallucinations.
- Young people who possessed their first smartphone before the age of 13 got fewer degrees in the “Mind Health Scale”, with grades gradually decreased whenever the age of owning the first smaller smartphone, for example, a record of those who owned a smartphone at the age of 13 average 30 points, and decreased to only one point for those who owned it at the age of five.
- The percentage of those who are considered distress or suffering from psychological difficulties increased (as the degrees indicate that there are 5 or more severe symptoms) by 9.5% for females and 7% for males.
- Owning smartphones at an early age is also associated with low self -esteem, confidence, emotional flexibility in females, low stability and calm, self -esteem, and male sympathy.
More harm than being ignored
Other analyzes indicated that early access to social media explains about 40%of the relationship between owning smartphones in early childhood and mental health at a later time, while playing bad family relations (13%), electronic bullying (10%), and sleep disorder (12%) important roles in the course of events.
The researchers acknowledge that the Kofid-19 pandemic may have huge these patterns, but the consistency of these trends in all regions of the world indicates a broader development effect on early access to smartphones.
While the current evidence is not proven after a direct causal relationship between the possession of smartphones early and mental health and luxury at a later time, which represents palaces in this study, and the authors explain that the volume of the potential damage is greater than that it is ignored, and is justified by precautionary action.
The researchers recommended 4 main areas for policy makers to address them:
- Imposing mandatory education on digital culture and mental health.
- Enhancing effective identification of life violations on social media and ensuring severe consequences for technology companies.
- Restricting access to social media platforms.
- Apply gradual restrictions to access to smartphones.
“In general, these political recommendations aim to protect mental health during critical growth periods,” says Dr. Tara, whose research specialization focuses on the impact of the environment on the brain and mind, with an interest in understanding and enabling the productive development of the human mind and human systems.
“I think it is also important to point out that smartphones and social media are not the only attack on mental health and crises facing young people. It explains some general decline, but not all. While more research is needed to detect causal mechanisms, waiting for conclusive evidence in the face of these results at the level of the population risk, unfortunately, by losing the opportunity to take preventive measures in time.”