Screen time associated with substance use in young adolescents

Researchers have found that screen tie was associated with alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis experimentation in young teens. With each additional hour spent on social media, texting, and video chatting, the odds of any substance experimentation went up. The study, “Prospective association between screen use modalities and substance use experimentation in early adolescents” by Jason M. Nagata M.D. is published in the January 2025 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The researchers based their information on data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study.