Over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed a growing number of headlines linking smartphones and mental health, especially among children and young adults. Concerns about rising rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges among children and teens have become common topics in parenting conversations.
A newly released study adds another important piece to this growing body of evidence. Once again, researchers found strong links between children’s smartphone use and later mental health problems. What makes this study stand out, however, is its scale and scope.
Researchers analyzed data from over 100,000 young adults aged 18 to 24 from around the world, representing diverse cultures and regions. Their findings were striking: young people who received smartphones before the age of 13 reported significantly more mental health symptoms than those who received them later.
While this research cannot prove that early smartphone use causes mental health problems, it adds to a growing body of research suggesting that early access to smartphones may play a contributing role.
New Study Helps Address Deeper Questions
This study stands out not only for its global sample but also for going beyond the standard simple questions about smartphones and mental health. Researchers examined specifically how phone use may influence the development of mental health challenges.
Participants reported their current mental health symptoms, which were then compared with the age at which they first received a smartphone. Across the entire sample, earlier smartphone ownership was associated with higher levels of serious symptoms, including
- Suicidal thoughts
- Aggression
- Detachment from reality
- Hallucinations
These patterns appeared across genders; however, female respondents seemed to be more at risk for developing a greater number of mental health symptoms. One particularly concerning finding was that 48% of females who received a smartphone at a young age (usually age 5 or 6) reported experiencing suicidal thoughts later in life.
Smartphones and Mental Health: Differences by Gender
While both men and women showed links between smartphones and mental health challenges, differences emerged in the types of symptoms experienced by each gender:
- Women were more likely to report struggles related to poor self-image, low self-worth, lack of confidence, and lower emotional resilience
- Men showed lower levels of emotional stability and calmness, as well as challenges with self-image, self-worth, and empathy.
These differences highlight that girls and boys may use smartphones in different ways or be exposed to content that impacts mental health.
Possible Pathways Linking Phone Use to Mental Health
One of the most valuable aspects of this research is that it explored specific pathways through which early smartphone use may be linked to mental health challenges. Perhaps the most striking finding was that social media was a key player. Researchers found that social media use explained about 40% of the relationship between early smartphone use and mental health symptoms. In other words, it’s not just having a phone at a young age; it’s having access to social media platforms that appear to account for much of the risk.
Other important pathways included:
- Poor family relationships
- Cyberbullying
- Sleep disruption
Each of these factors offers a potential explanation for how smartphone use may gradually influence emotional well-being over time. Smartphone use may interfere with family connections, increase children’s risk of cyberbullying, and be linked to poor sleep habits. The study implied that all these factors could contribute to the mental health symptoms the young adults reported.
Even with this data, we cannot assume that smartphone use caused these mental health challenges, as this is a correlational design. It could be that the young adults who are at risk for mental health challenges are more likely to receive phones at an earlier age. Similarly, there could be some unknown factor that sets early phone users apart from others and also explains the mental health symptoms.
Helping Families Make Mindful Choices
It’s important to remember that this study asked young adults, not children, to describe their current mental health symptoms. Those symptoms were then correlated with the age at which they first received a smartphone. Some participants reported getting a phone as early as five years old, meaning the potential mental health impacts described happened many years later.
This long-term perspective is what makes the study especially thought-provoking for parents. While it cannot prove causation, it raises important questions about the lasting impact of introducing smartphones early in a child’s life.
For parents navigating when, how, and whether to introduce phones, this research offers insights and important factors to consider. It suggests that delaying smartphone access until the teen years (and perhaps beyond) may be a safer option. Additionally, it seems clear that setting boundaries around social media use and prioritizing family time and healthy sleep habits are crucial to smartphone use.