Increases in Depression, Self-Harm, and Suicide Among U.S. Adolescents After 2012 and Links to Technology Use: Possible Mechanisms

Abstract

Objective: Increases in depression among adolescents have been concurrent with increases in digital media use. In this article, recent trends in mental health among U.S. adolescents and young adults are discussed and theories about their possible connection with concurrent increases in digital media use are presented.

Methods: Large studies of trends in mental health in the 2000s and 2010s are described and possible mechanisms for the trends are discussed based on existing literature.

Results: After remaining stable during the early 2000s, the prevalence of mental health issues among U.S. adolescents and young adults began to rise in the early 2010s. These trends included sharp increases in depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicide, with increases more pronounced among girls and young women. There is a growing consensus that these trends may be connected to the rise in technology use. Increased digital media and smartphone use may influence mental health via several mechanisms, including displacement of time spent in in-person social interactions, individually and across the generation, as adolescent cultural norms evolve; disruption of in-person social interactions; interference with sleep time and quality; cyberbullying and toxic online environments; and online contagion and information about self-harm.

Conclusions: U.S. adolescents and young adults are in the midst of a mental health crisis, particularly among girls and young women. The rise of digital media may have played a role in this problem via several mechanisms.

Keywords: depression; digital media; self‐harm; social media; suicide.

FIGURE 1

Indicators of poor mental health among U.S. girls and young women, 2001–2018^{a a}Standard deviations are within means at the generational level, not at the individual level, and thus should not be used to calculate individual‐level effect sizes. ^bSource: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide rates among 12‐ to 14‐year‐old girls. ^cSource: Spiller et al. (14). Self‐poisoning among 13‐ to 15‐year‐old girls. ^dSource: Twenge et al. (11). Major depressive episode among 14‐ to 15‐year‐old girls. ^eSources: Keyes et al. (8) and Twenge et al. (9). Depressive symptoms among eighth‐grade girls.

FIGURE 2

Proportion of adolescents with depression or low psychological well‐being, by hours a day of social media or smartphone use ^aSource: Kelly et al. (. ^bSource: Przybylski and Weinstein (25) and reanalyzed by Twenge and Campbell (28).