Prospective association between screen use modalities and substance use experimentation in early adolescents

Background: There are limited large-scale, prospective analyses examining contemporary screen use and substance use experimentation in early adolescents. The current study aimed to determine associations between eight forms of contemporary screen modalities and substance use experimentation one year later in a national cohort of 11-12-year-olds in the United States.

Methods: The sample consisted of 8006 early adolescents (47.9 % female and 41.6 % racial/ethnic minority) from the prospective cohort data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the prospective associations between screen time (eight different types and total) in Year 2 and substance use experimentation (alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, any substance use) in Year 3, adjusting for covariates and Year 2 substance use experimentation.

Results: Total screen time was prospectively associated with alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis experimentation. Each additional hour spent on social media (AOR 1.20; 95 % CI 1.14-1.26), texting (AOR 1.18; 95 % CI 1.12-1.24), and video chatting (AOR 1.09; 95 % CI 1.03-1.16) was associated with higher odds of any substance experimentation. Social media use and texting were also associated with higher odds of alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine experimentation; however, television/movies, videos, video games, and the internet were not. Moreover, video chatting was associated with higher odds of cannabis and nicotine experimentation.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that digital social connections, such as via social media, texting, and video chatting, are the contemporary screen modalities that are associated with early adolescent substance experimentation. Future research could explore the mechanisms underlying these associations to inform intervention strategies.