Doomscrolling vs. Screen Time: Mental Health Risks for College Students

College students are frequent users of social media and may be particularly vulnerable to doomscrolling, a pattern of repetitive engagement with negative or distressing content. Although doomscrolling is linked to depression, less is known about its associations with attention, anxiety, trauma symptoms, and related constructs for college students. Participants were 270 U.S. college students who completed self-report surveys assessing doomscrolling, time spent on social media, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS), fear of missing out (FoMO), and childhood trauma. Path analyses were conducted. Group analyses evaluated differences by ADHD diagnostic status and trauma exposure. Doomscrolling was associated with ADHD inattentive (β = .31) and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms (β = .29), anxiety (β = .33), depression (β = .30), CDS (β = .25), and FoMO (β = .44), whereas time on social media showed fewer associations. Emotional aspects of doomscrolling were more strongly related to mental health. Associations were similar across trauma groups, while no significant associations emerged within the ADHD group. Doomscrolling, particularly its emotional components, is associated with worse mental health among college students and may be a more sensitive marker of risk than time spent on social media. Intervention development is needed to decrease doomscrolling in college students with a focus on emotion regulation.