上网时间与心理健康之间没有联系

No connection between the amount of time spent online and mental health

Some parents are worried about the phenomenon that kids spend a lot of time looking at screens. But a new study dispels the apprehension parents may feel.

部分家长对于孩子们长时间盯着屏幕看这一现象感到担忧。但一项新研究打消了家长们可能会有的忧虑。 

“The problem is that parents are hearing a message that social media, digital technology use is causing very serious and harmful problems like depression, like suicide-related behaviors.” Candice Odgers, professor of psychological science at the University of California, Irvine.

“问题在于，家长们得到的信息是，社交媒体和数字技术的使用正导致非常严重且有害的问题，比如抑郁症、自杀相关行为等。”加州大学欧文分校心理学教授坎迪斯·奥德格斯表示。

“If you shut off social media, which lots of kids use to connect with each other, their friends, find out information about health, you could in fact be making a situation worse. Parents are really being sent a message that is not supported by anything scientifically.”

“很多孩子通过社交媒体与彼此保持联系、联络朋友，查找有关健康的信息，如果你切断他们的社交媒体，实际上你可能会使情况变得更糟。家长们得到的信息没有任何科学依据。” 

Odgers and her colleagues looked at the screen-related behavior of 400 public-school students in North Carolina ages 10 to 14. The researchers found that—even not counting time doing schoolwork on screens—the kids spent between almost five hours to seven hours per day on their devices, with the older kids online the most. That's a lot of hours, but: “Overall, what we find is no connection between the amount of time that young people spend online using digital technologies and mental health symptoms like depression, anxiety. When we do find associations, they were actually quite surprising to us. We found that young people who sent more text messages actually reported better mental health. Now, again, this was a small association, but it reflects what other people have found: that people who are very connected off-line, that use technology in the positive ways to stay connected often, are more connected online as well and experiencing better mental health.”

奥德格斯和她的同事研究了北卡罗来纳州400名10到14岁就读于公立学校的学生的屏幕相关行为。研究人员发现，即使不算使用屏幕做功课的时间，孩子们每天花在手机上的时间也在5到7个小时之间，其中年龄较大的孩子上网的时间更多。这是相当长的时间，不过：“总的来说，我们发现年轻人上网使用数字技术的时间与抑郁、焦虑等心理健康症状之间没有任何相关性。而我们发现的联系则让我们非常惊讶。我们发现，发短信较多的年轻人实际上心理健康状况更好。重申一下，这仅仅是一个小联系，但它验证了其他人员的研究成果：那些在线下生活中与他人联系密切，以及那些经常积极使用科技保持联系的人，通常在线上的联系也更多，心理健康状况也更好。”