Association between mobile phone use and depressed mood in Japanese adolescents: a cross-sectional study.
Ikeda K, Nakamura K. · 2018
View Original AbstractHeavy mobile phone users (33+ hours weekly) showed significantly higher depression and fatigue scores than lighter users among Japanese teens.
Plain English Summary
Researchers studied nearly 2,800 Japanese high school students to see if heavy mobile phone use was linked to mood problems. Students using phones more than 33 hours per week showed significantly higher levels of depression, tension, and fatigue compared to lighter users. This suggests that excessive phone use may negatively impact teenagers' mental health.
Why This Matters
This study adds important evidence to growing concerns about mobile phone impacts on adolescent mental health. The research found a clear dose-response relationship - the more time students spent on their phones, the worse their psychological mood became. What's particularly striking is that students in the highest usage group (33+ hours weekly) showed significantly elevated depression scores across multiple validated measures. The science demonstrates that heavy mobile phone use correlates with measurable changes in mood and mental state. While this cross-sectional study can't prove causation, it aligns with mounting research suggesting that excessive screen time and mobile device use may harm developing minds. For parents and teens, this research highlights the importance of mindful technology use and setting reasonable boundaries around phone time.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
The aim of this study was to clarify associations between duration of mobile phone use and psychological mood in high school students
This cross-sectional study included 2,785 high school students in Niigata, Japan. A self-administere...
Among the respondents, mean mobile phone use per week was 24 (median 18) h. Long-duration mobile pho...
Increased duration of mobile phone use is associated with unfavorable psychological mood, in particular, a depressed mood. Decreasing mobile phone use may help maintain appropriate mental health in very long-duration users.
Show BibTeX
@article{k_2018_association_between_mobile_phone_2218,
author = {Ikeda K and Nakamura K.},
title = {Association between mobile phone use and depressed mood in Japanese adolescents: a cross-sectional study.},
year = {2018},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24347468/},
}