What is it about?
Nearly everyone uses a digital device, but these devices can be addictive. We thought that young university students with more attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, autistic traits, or anxiety may have more digital addiction. Students with higher ADHD symptoms or autistic traits often have higher anxiety, so we also thought that the link from ADHD symptoms and autistic traits to digital addiction may be because of this higher anxiety.
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Photo by Rob Hampson on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Digital addiction is very common among emerging adults and university students around the world and is related with significant and wide-ranging harmful health outcomes. We found that higher ADHD symptoms were associated with more internet, mobile phone, and video game addictions, with anxiety partially linking the association with video game addiction. Students with higher ADHD symptoms may be at greater risk of developing and maintaining digital addiction, and so it is important to identify these students to reduce or prevent negative mental health outcomes.
Perspectives
Working on this project has made me more aware of the addictiveness and harmful consequences of digital technology and so I am trying to reduce how much time I spend on devices.
Mr Matthew J Giblett
University of Queensland
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Generalised anxiety as a mediator linking ADHD symptoms and autistic traits to digital addictions in Australian emerging adults, September 2026, openRxiv,
DOI: 10.64898/2026.09.06.26362218.
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