216. Media And Mental Health: The Role of Parental Media Monitoring On Adolescents' Mental Health Via Reductions In Media Use

Abstract

Levels of internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression are increasing among teens (NIMH, 2016), and some point to increased involvement with media as a potentially important correlate. Indeed, time spent using media has been associated with higher levels of internalizing problems through simple duration (Maras et al., 2015), loss of sleep (Hokby et al., 2016), when consumed passively (Belfort & Miller, 2017), and when used as a form of social skills compensation (Teppers et al., 2014). Research has also found that time using specific platforms of media has been associated with higher levels of internalizing problems. More specifically, higher levels of anxiety and depression are linked with a greater number of social media accounts and platforms (Barry et al., 2017; Primack et al., 2017), and playing online role-playing games (Holtz & Appel, 2011). While time spent using media has been linked to internalizing problems, few studies have explored the role that parents might play in mitigating these associations. Parental monitoring of media has been associated indirectly with more adaptive child outcomes inasmuch as it is associated with less time spent using media such as television (Ramirez, 2011), social media (Fardouly et al., 2018), video games and internet use (Weigle & Reid, 2014). Thus, the current study explored the link between controlling and autonomy supportive restrictive and active parental media monitoring and time spent using media (media multitasking, social media, tv, video games, music, reading, texting, and internet), and then explored how time with media was linked to adolescents’ anxiety and depression. We expected that autonomy supportive parenting would be associated with lower levels of media use, which would then be associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression. The current study used data from a national study of teens ages 10-20 (N = 1193, 52% female, 68% white, 13% black, 11% Latino), with roughly equal numbers of teens in every age group (n = 105). Preliminary structural equation modeling analyses had good model fit and were explored using multiple group analyses to assess gender differences. The model could be constrained to be equal for gender on all variables except links from media time to anxiety and depression (X2(195) = 696.52, p < .001, CFI = .92, RMSEA = 06). This multiple group model found that only autonomy supportive restrictive media monitoring was associated with lower media use for both boys and girls on all platforms of media except reading (all p < .05). In turn, for both girls and boys, media multitasking was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, and social media use was associated with higher levels of anxiety. For girls, music and internet use were also associated with higher levels of depression; whereas for boys video games were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression but texting and television were associated with lower levels of anxiety and depression. Discussion will focus on the indirect role of parental media monitoring on internalizing problems via reductions in the time spent on various media platforms.