Young children who spend lot of time on social media are more likely to develop disruptive behavioral disorders, conduct or oppositional defiant disorder, suggests a new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.¹

This prospective study analysed data from 11,875 children, aged 9-11 years, who were a part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study with the intent to find out a link between duration and types of screen time and disruptive behavior disorders. They were examined at one year for behavioral disorder.

The diagnosis of behavioral disorder - conduct or oppositional defiant disorder, at the end of the study was based on the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (KSADS-5). Six screen types were examined in the study namely watching movies or TV shows, watching videos such as on YouTube, playing video games, video chatting, texting and social media for example Instagram.

Children reported an average screen time of 4 hours daily. They spent the maximum amount of time (1.3 hours average) on watching movies or TV shows, followed by 1.1 hours on video games and one hour on watching videos. The risk of conduct disorder rose by 7% and by 5% for oppositional defiant disorder with every hour of total daily screen time. Conduct disorder was more prevalent in children who used social media with every hour associated with 62% higher prevalence of conduct disorder.

Oppositional defiant disorder was more commonly associated with texting, video chat/games and TV. The prevalence ratio for every hour of video chat was 1.21; for texting, it was 1.19, for TV and/or movies, it was 1.17 and for video games, it was 1.14.

Children who reported screen time longer than 4 hours, identified as the cut-off, were at a 69% higher risk of  conduct disorder, while the risk of ODD was 46% higher. Nearly 2% of children were found to have incident conduct disorder, while 6.3% had new-onset oppositional defiant disorder. Both behavioral disorders were more common among boys than in girls.

According to the CDC, conduct disorder is when “children show an ongoing pattern of aggression toward others, and serious violations of rules and social norms at home, in school, and with peers”. While children with ODD are angry, argumentative and defiant.

This study has demonstrated the association of new-onset disruptive behavior disorders with increasing screen time. It particularly highlights the impact of social media, which was more associated with conduct disorder. This could possibly be due to the violent and disturbing nature of the content they may be exposed to. The likelihood of oppositional defiant disorder was more in children who engaged in playing video games, texting, and watching TV for long hours, which may adversely affect their social interaction.

Reference

1. Jason M Nagata, et al. Contemporary screen time modalities and disruptive behavior disorders in children: a prospective cohort study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 26. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13673.