Trajectories of distressing psychotic-like experience in youth: the interplay of recent negative life events and screen time

Adolescence is marked by increased risk for psychopathology, alongside behavioral changes such as greater screen time. Adolescents who experience distressing psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) are particularly vulnerable to the onset of psychopathology and often report exposure to negative life events. This study examined how screen time and recent negative life events contribute to trajectories of PLE distress using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®. Latent Growth Mixture Models identified PLE distress trajectories over five timepoints. Linear mixed-effects models assessed how screen time, recent negative life events, and their interactions predicted these trajectories. Sensitivity analyses were conducted examining the influence of cumulative stress. Three PLE distress trajectories emerged: increasing, decreasing, no distress. The increasing and decreasing PLE distress trajectories reported similar amounts of daily screen time. However, youth in the increasing PLE distress trajectory reported more recent negative life events, and associations between more weekend texting and social media use at ages 11–12 and PLE distress levels at ages 13–14 were strongest for people who were exposed to more recent negative life events (but not cumulative stress). These findings suggest that more proximal adverse life experiences may have an impact on screen time and PLE distress levels.