Stefan Mileschin

Could result in poor mental health

One in four children and young people could have problematic smartphone use, according to research that also suggests such behaviour is associated with poorer mental health.

Writing in the journal BMC Psychiatry, the experts behind the latest study said they wanted to look beyond the time young people were spending on smartphones and instead explore the type of relationship they had with such devices.

The results suggest more than 23 percent of young people have a dysfunctional relationship with their smartphones, and that this appears to be associated with poorer mental health – although the research cannot say whether phone use is driving such problems.

Dr Nicola Kalk of King’s College London, co-author of the study said: “It seems like a substantial minority of teenagers and young people from various different countries are self-reporting a pattern of behaviour that … we recognise from other addictions. The quality of the evidence is poor, but it is enough to warrant further investigation.”

The team looked at data from 41 studies involving a total of almost 42,000 participants across Europe, Asia and America, predominately in their teens or early 20s.

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