Overview
- Researchers followed 8,324 U.S. children from roughly ages 9 to 14 and tracked self-reported screen habits alongside parent-rated ADHD symptoms.
- The association with worsening attention was specific to social media and was not observed for video games or television/videos.
- Directionality tests supported a pathway from social media use to later inattention, and children with higher inattention did not subsequently increase social media use.
- Genetic liability for ADHD, indexed by a polygenic risk score, did not moderate the social media–inattention link, and results held across multiple sensitivity checks.
- Average daily social media exposure climbed from about 30 minutes at age 9 to roughly 2.5 hours by age 13, and the authors note that small individual effects could matter at population scale in guiding policy and design choices.