School’s out. Teens are bored. And the siren call of social media and video games beckons.
Parents and caregivers bungling through new summer routines, or lack thereof, have long sought to balance the time kids spend glued to screens with time spent outdoors. Many worry about the increasing evidence linking teen screen use to skyrocketing mental health problems.
But finding that balance might not be key to warding off teen anxiety, depression, aggression and suicidal thinking, researchers report in June in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That’s because screen addiction — not just the amount of screen time — appears to predict the onset of such