Purpose: Digital media use has been associated with psychotic experiences in youth from the community, but the direction of association remains unclear. We aimed to examine between- and within-person associations of digital media use and psychotic experiences in youth.
Methods: The sample included 425 participants aged 18-25 years (82.5% female) from the community, followed between May 2021 and January 2022 over 3 time points-of which 263 participants (61.9%) completed at least 2. Digital media use was self-reported as time spent daily on TV and streaming platforms, social media, and video games over the past 3 months. Psychotic experiences in the past 3 months were measured with the 15-item Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences. Associations between digital media use and psychotic experiences were estimated using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model.
Results: On average, individuals who reported greater digital media use also reported higher levels of psychotic experiences (r = 0.34, 95% CI 0.15, 0.53). However, a person's variation in digital media use, relative to their personal average, was not significantly associated with subsequent variations in their levels of psychotic experiences, or vice-versa. Results were similar across TV/streaming, social media and video game use, and after adjusting for age, sex, education, sleep, physical activity, and cannabis use.
Conclusion: Individuals with a tendency for higher levels of digital media use also had a tendency for higher levels of psychotic experiences. Understanding this association may help personalize mental health interventions for people with psychotic experiences, which may be offered digitally to promote their accessibility.
Keywords: Chronotype; Internet use; Psychotic symptoms; Psychotic-like experiences; Screen time; Technology use.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.