“Those who considered themselves screen-addicted were indeed the ones who were spending more times on screens,” she says. “And those who considered themselves addicted were more likely to have higher scores in all types of stress.”
The reverse was not found to be the case, however. Over 60 per cent of all respondents reported at least one kind of stress, be it bereavement, financial, relationship, health or exam, but only one-third of them described themselves as screen addicts.
Serious stressors such as bereavement and chronic health were not associated with differences in screen use, but financial, exam, relationship and self-evaluated mental health stressors were associated with greater dependency on social networking.
Does screen fun lead to stress?
Khalili-Mahani cautions about drawing any conclusions about the causality of the relationship between stress and screen usage.
“Those who identify themselves as screen-addicted are more likely to be those who are spending more time on social networks, games or relaxation,” she says.
“Those who consider themselves screen-addicted were also more stressed emotionally. More work is needed to study the subjective differences in justification of using screens for leisure activities.”
She adds that it is plausible that the self-admitting addicts perceive time spent on social networks with more guilt than time spent on following the news or searching information — which were both the most important activities for all groups.
Coping on the go
The researchers are using the findings to develop mental health care e-tools to mitigate chronic stress that can be delivered via their screens. These would preferably be designed for mobile devices, as self-identified screen addicts highly value portability, communication and leisure.
“Emotional stress was very dominant in predicting screen usage, so that’s what we’re focusing on moving forward,” says Khalili-Mahani. “We think these screens can be used for some sort of emotional intervention, and we are taking a gamified approach to make these interventions relaxing and fun.”
The study was funded through a fellowship from Concordia’s Office of Research.
Read the cited paper, “To Each Stress Its Own Screen: A Cross-Sectional Survey of the Patterns of Stress and Various Screen Uses in Relation to Self-Admitted Screen Addiction.”