Currently submitted to: JMIR Preprints
Date Submitted: Jul 18, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Jul 18, 2026 - Jul 3, 2027
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Academic Revision: Digital Overload and Adolescent Anxiety
ABSTRACT
Adolescent anxiety prevalence has escalated markedly over the past decade, paralleling substantial increases in digital media exposure. This study investigates the multivariate associations among daily screen time, nocturnal digital engagement, sleep architecture disruption, and generalized anxiety symptomatology in a sample of 742 high‑school students. Employing a cross‑sectional design, we collected data on device‑use patterns, sleep duration and latency, and standardized anxiety indices (GAD‑7). Hierarchical regression models demonstrated that late‑night screen use exhibited a significantly stronger association with anxiety scores than aggregate daily screen time, with sleep reduction mediating approximately 41% of the observed relationship. Adolescents engaging in post‑midnight device use reported elevated physiological hyperarousal, increased cognitive rumination, and diminished capacity for attentional disengagement from social platforms. These findings underscore the importance of interventions targeting sleep hygiene, circadian‑aligned digital routines, and cognitive regulation strategies, suggesting that such approaches may yield greater efficacy than generalized screen‑time restrictions. Implications for school‑based prevention frameworks and parent‑guided digital behavior protocols are discussed.
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