A 2022 New York Times Opinion piece asks, “Should More Teenagers Ditch Their Smartphones?” Smartphones are where we spend most of our time on the internet and plenty of studies have shown negative effects of screen time on kids. But what about how a teen's wellbeing is affected by their parents’ time spent online?

A team of University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers found that parents’ internet use can negatively impact their kids’ wellbeing, but there are ways to help navigate and reduce this.

About the Study

A study co-authored by Dr. Simon Goldberg, Center for Healthy Minds core faculty, examined the association between an adolescent’s depression and their parents' excessive internet use. The study, published in Child Psychiatry & Human Development, involved around 4,500 parent-and-adolescent pairs.

It also tested how household rules for internet use could help curb negative effects, using feedback from both parents and adolescents.

Highlights and Study Findings

Results suggest that parents’ relationship with the internet may impact their adolescents’ mental health. When parents spend a lot of time online, their teens tend to show more signs of depression, including suicidal ideation, even after accounting for how much the teens themselves use the internet in unhealthy ways. In other words, the link between parent internet overuse and teen depression is still there even when you factor out the teen’s own internet problems.

“These results support the sobering possibility that how parents are engaging with technology impacts their children’s wellbeing,” said Goldberg.

However, results also suggest that the association between parental internet use and adolescent mental health may depend in part by household rules around internet use for both the parent and teen. When rules around time online were unclear and rules about content were loose, this is when adolescent depression may be more negatively impacted.

Impact

We know that technology plays a massive role in our lives. This study is part of broader efforts to understand the mental health impact technology may have on parents and their adolescents.

Ultimately, these insights could lead to solutions to help reduce the potentially harmful effects of problematic technology use on children and their families.

Read the full paper here.

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By Victoria Vlisides

Illustration credit: Iconic Prototype