This month’s issue of the Archives of General Psychology includes the results of a seven year study investigating the association between media exposure in adolescence and depression in young adulthood. Of the 4,142 participants (47.5% female and 67.0% white) who were not depressed at baseline and who underwent follow-up assessment, 308 (7.4%) reported symptoms consistent with depression at follow-up.
Participants reporting more television use had significantly greater odds of developing depression for each additional hour of daily television use. The same was true for participants reporting more total media exposure. However, the study did not find a consistent relationship between development of depressive symptoms and exposure to videocassettes, computer games, or radio.
The study, performed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, concludes that television exposure and total media exposure in adolescence are associated with increased odds of depressive symptoms in young adulthood, especially in young men.
Although Dr. Brian Primack who led the study has been careful to say the results don’t prove that viewing television causes depression, we know time spent watching television often replaces time that could be beneficially devoted to social, academic and athletic activities that facilitate an emotionally healthy sense of accomplishment, teamwork/cooperation and self-respect.
– Frank Mannarino of emoshuns.com
See: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/66/2/181