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 South Korean high school students found 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 United States 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.
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, Ha said, the students probably were suffering from some serious cases of teen angst because of a problem in their lives or anxiety about their social status.
“They are trying to make themselves feel better by reaching out to others,” he said.
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 via their phones on average about every 10 minutes during waking hours. The majority of usage was in text messages.
Dr. Bruce Spring, assistant professor of Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, said that in some cases, light or no use of a cellphone might actually be a more serious warning sign.
“Teens who are really anxious and depressed,” he said, “won’t be sending messages or making calls.”
