A medical study indicates excessive cellphone use by teens may be an indication of unhappiness and anxiety. The Los Angeles Times' article on the subject is reprinted below:
FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
The teen obsession with yakking, text messaging and ring tone swapping on their cellphones might mean more than a whopping phone bill. For the most crazed, it's a sign of unhappiness and anxiety, according to a new medical study.
A survey of 575 high school students found that that the top third of users – students who used their phones more than 90 times a day – frequently did so because they were unhappy or bored. They scored significantly higher on tests measuring depression and anxiety compared with students who used their phones a more sedate 70 times daily.
The study, presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Toronto, was among the first to explore the emotional significance of teens' cellphone habits as the device becomes more entrenched in today's youth culture.
Two of every five youths in the U.S. from ages 8 to 18 own a cellphone, according to a recent survey. Students in grades seven through 12 spend an average of an hour a day on their cellphones – about the same amount of time they devote to homework.
Some earlier studies involving college students have suggested a link between heavy cellphone use and depression. Other research has shown that students incorporate cellphones into their personal identities.
For teens, cellphones were "not just objects or communications tools. They were portals for being in touch with other people – extensions of themselves," said Christina Wasson, an anthropologist at the University of North Texas who has studied cellphone use.
Dr. Jee Hyan Ha, lead author of the latest report, said heavy cellphone users involved in his study weren't clinically depressed. Rather, Dr. Ha said, the students probably were suffering from some serious cases of teen angst. The youths may have been unhappy because of a problem in their lives or anxious about their social status.
"They are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to others," he said.
Dr. Ha, a psychiatrist at Yongin Mental Hospital in South Korea, surveyed students attending a technical high school in that country about their cellphone habits and attitudes. Most of the participants were boys, and their average age was 15.
The heaviest users were communicating with their phones on average about every 10 minutes during waking hours. The majority of their usage was in text messages.
They continually checked their phones for messages and often became irritated when people didn't call them right back.
Based on the popularity of the devices in South Korea, where three-quarters of residents have cellphones, Dr. Ha expected to find students had become addicted to their phones.
"I thought that there would be some kind of craving, but that is not what I saw," he said.
Instead, Dr. Ha found that cellphone use appeared to be linked to self-esteem.
Students in the highest third of users scored significantly worse on scales measuring depression, anxiety and "alexithymia," or the ability to express emotion, compared with students in the bottom third of cellphone users.
Dr. Ha used a psychological test to measure the mental state of the students. In the test, a score of 21 marked a clinical depression. The heaviest cellphone users scored 12, well below that point, while the lighter users came in at 7.
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