The relationship between usage of social media and chances of developing symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD may be directly proportional, as per a new study published in the journal JAMA on 17 July.
The chances of teenagers developing ADHD symptoms might be higher if they spend more time online, as per this study.
What is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a mental disorder and can be easily spotted in kids suffering from it.
If the child is very restless, fidgety and cannot concentrate on enjoyable things or on studies, that’s when doubts arise and it needs to be assessed whether the child has ADHD or not.Dr Sumant Khanna, Delhi-based consultant psychiatrist
It may be missed in very mild cases and is obvious in severe cases, he added. It’s the grey area in between where one has to be careful.
The situation may persist and today adult ADHD is also recognised, but the symptoms have to be there in early childhood and would be clear before the age of seven.
The Study
For the study, 2587 students across 10 schools in Los Angeles County, California were monitored. These students were between the ages 15 and 16 years and displayed no symptoms of ADHD at the beginning of the study.
The study which ranged over two years, had students fill in forms that measured ADHD symptoms. These forms included ‘nine inattention symptoms and nine hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms’.
The questions in these forms pertained to the frequency of engaging in social activities such as online shopping, spending time on social media, video calling, chatting etc.
The answers indicated how frequent the students used social media - sometimes, the usage was high and sometimes, it was low.
Results
Post analysis, the researchers found that every time a student reported higher use of social media, the probability of him/her having ADHD symptoms increased.
At the end of the study, the researchers found that an average of 9.5% students who engaged in as high as 7 digital media activities showed symptoms of ADHD. 10.5% of these students were also found to be engaged in 14 digital media activities frequently.
Though, the study also found out that 4.6% who did not engage in any digital activity also showed symptoms of ADHD.
Limitations of the Study
Experts feel that the age and the geography of the schools might have limited the study in some ways and that more research was needed to see whether the same results would be achieved over a larger group of children across a wide age range.
Experts also feel that since the students were asked to self-analyse and fill in the forms themselves, it might have affected the results a bit.
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