The Relationship Between Mobile Screen Time and Depression in College Students

Abstract

The inordinate use and reliance on screen time, specifically as one’s primary choice of leisure, has become a new normal for those living in the 21st century. College students often spend significant amounts of time engaged in screens for academic, social, and leisure purposes (Fountaine et al., 2011). This cross-sectional non-experimental study, utilizing retrospective correlational design, aimed to test for a potential relationship between mobile screen time and the severity of depression/depressive symptoms in college students and the association between screen-related categories and the severity of depression symptoms in college students. Results found that there was no significant (p < .05) relationship between mobile screen time usage and depression. A discussion is provided on mobile screen time usage and the severity of depression in college students, and the role of recreational therapy (RT) in preventing, combating, and treating addiction/addictive screen time behaviors and enhancing healthy relationships with mobile screens. Implications of this study provide insight into a greater understanding of depression and mobile screen time usage of college students.