A Longitudinal Investigation on the Association Between Short Video APPs Overuse and ADHD Symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Background: Due to the recent emergence and rapid development of short video APP, the negative effects resulted from it has attracted the attention of mental health education researchers. Some recent studies investigating the relationship between modern digital platforms usage (e.g., social networking, streaming movies or music, texting, and video game playing) and attention problems among children and adolescents began to appear in literature (Nikkelen, Valkenburg, Huizinga, & Bushman, 2014; Ra et al., 2018). However, so far as we know, very few has focused on the relationship between the overuse of short video APP and attentional problems. In this study, we used a longitudinal design to explore the possible cross-lagged relationship between short video overuse and furtherly, we tested whether there is a gender difference existing.

Method: Short video overuse and ADHD symptoms were measured at two time points, with an interval of 6 months. The participants were 232 middle school students (80 males, 152 females) aged between 11 to16 (Mage=12.91, SD=1.17). The overuse of short video APP was measured by the adapted Facebook Overuse Scale (Elphinston & Noller, 2011). The ADHD Symptoms were measured by the Barkley Current Symptoms Scale (Barkley & Murphy, 2006).

Results: The data were analyzed using Mplus 8.3. The results of the structural equation model showed that: For males, there was no cross-lagged association between the overuse use of short video APP and ADHD symptoms. The ADHD symptoms at Time 1 did not predict the overuse of short video APP at Time 2 (β=.10, p>.05), and neither the overuse of short video APP at Time 1 predicted the ADHD symptoms at Time 2 (β=.08, p>.05; see Figure 1 for details).
For females, the ADHD symptoms at Time1 predicted the overuse of short video APP at Time 2 (β=.24, p<.05), indicating that female students who exhibited more ADHD symptoms at an early time would be more likely to use short video APPs at a later time. However, the overuse of short video APP at Time1 did not predict the ADHD symptoms at Time 2 (β=-.17, p>.05; see Figure 2 for details).
Conclusion: ADHD symptoms can be predictive of overuse of short video APP among middle school students, however this is only the case for female students. Therefore, attention should be given to female middle school students who exhibit ADHD symptoms, because they may use short video APP excessively as way to compensate for lower arousal level.

Author

• Haizhen Wang, Center for Mental Health Education
  Presenting Author