hile becoming inextricable to our daily lives, online social media are blamed for increasing mental health problems in younger people. This systematic review synthesised evidence on the influence of social media use on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. A search of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, CINAHL and SSCI databases reaped 13 eligible studies, of which 12 were cross-sectional. Findings were classified into four domains of social media: time spent, activity, investment and addiction. All domains correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress. However, there are considerable caveats due to methodological limitations of cross-sectional design, sampling and measures. Mechanisms of the putative effects of social media on mental health should be explored further through qualitative enquiry and longitudinal cohort studies.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of grants go to community groups every year from gambling, including pokies, Lotto and casinos – but legal online casinos wouldn’t have to, under new government plans. Steve Kilgallon reports.
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Video games have become so good, and provide such a sensory smorgasbord of action and colour, that children are becoming dangerously addicted. They’re playing for days on end, to the exclusion of everything else in their lives, including school, friends and family.
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