Sleep-deprived, cyberbullied teenagers addicted to smartphones are now a common phenomenon in schools. Combine cyberbullying, lack of sleep and poor mental health, and you have the perfect storm for a teenage meltdown.
To reveal the scale of the problem, Australian researchers have polled more than 50,000 primary and secondary school students aged 7-19 years about the link between their sleep and nighttime phone habits, experience of cyberbullying and stress levels.
Researchers from the Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre at the University of South Australia found that across all genders and age groups, phone use overnight not only robbed children of sleep, but it also had a negative impact on their mental health, especially among those who had been cyberbullied.
Whether one habit causes or stems from another is not crystal clear, but the study findings should send a clear signal to parents about the need to manage digital device use at home.
Results
Approximately 66 per cent of teenage girls and 58 per cent of teenage boys (aged 12-19 years) reported being cyberbullied at least once in the preceding school term. Among the girls, 17 per cent said they slept less than eight hours a night and the corresponding figure for the teenage boys was 13 per cent.
Stress levels in the moderate-to-severe range were reported by 38 per cet of teenage girls and 23 per cent of teenage boys.
While cyberbullying and lack of sleep were not as common in primary aged children (7-11 years), one in five reported moderate-to-severe stress.
For the purposes of the study, ‘nighttime’ refers to phone use when children are supposed to be sleeping, not prior to bed.
UniSA researcher and co-author Dr Stephanie Centofanti says that girls are particularly vulnerable because their smartphone use at night is higher than other age groups and they start using social media at a younger age.
‘We found that frequency of nighttime phone use and getting less than eight hours sleep a night not only peaked in early adolescence but was also more evident in young girls,’ said Dr Centofanti.
‘Pre-teens are at higher risk for socio-emotional disorders because they are at a developmental stage where they are less prepared cognitively, behaviourally and neurobiologically.’
Boys and girls
The researchers say that outside of the digital environment, boys are more likely to be physically bullied, while girls normally resort to psychological or relational bullying, which is more easily enabled online.
Approximately 15 per cent of children in the study reported being cyberbullied, with a higher frequency of boys in primary school and girls in secondary school.
More than one third of primary school children and over 60 per cent of teenagers in the study reported using their phone at night when they were supposed to be sleeping.
Of the children who experienced cyberbullying, almost 75 per cent admitted they checked their phone throughout the night, compared to less than half for those who had never been cyberbullied.
‘It is clear that parents need to pay closer attention to managing smartphone use at night, particularly if their children are more vulnerable to cyberbullying, and to ensure their children get enough sleep,’ said Dr Centofanti.
The findings are published in the journal Adolescents.
