Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Health Econ. 2022 Oct;31 Suppl 2:6-21. doi: 10.1002/hec.4570. Epub 2022 Jul 13.
Mental health disorders are among the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Recently, attention has been drawn to the Internet and social media as determinants of the increase in mental health conditions in recent years. In this paper, I analyze the causal effect of broadband Internet access on the mental health of adults. I leverage confidential information on the coordinates of respondents to the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and exploit technological features of the German telecommunication network to instrument for broadband Internet access. The results are suggestive that broadband Internet leads to worse mental health for women (primarily those aged 17-30) but not for men, thus widening the gender gap in mental disorders. Looking at sub-facets of mental health, broadband access leads to a worsening of socializing behavior and ability to cope with emotional problems. The fact that the results are concentrated among the younger cohorts of women is suggestive that high Internet usage intensity amplifies the negative effect of broadband internet access on mental health.
心理健康障碍是全球疾病负担的主要原因之一。最近，人们开始关注互联网和社交媒体，认为这是近年来心理健康状况增加的决定因素。在本文中，我分析了宽带互联网接入对成年人心理健康的因果影响。我利用德国社会经济面板（GSOEP）受访者的坐标的机密信息，并利用德国电信网络的技术特征来为宽带互联网接入提供工具。结果表明，宽带互联网会导致女性（主要是 17-30 岁的女性）心理健康状况恶化，但不会导致男性心理健康状况恶化，从而扩大了心理健康障碍方面的性别差距。从心理健康的各个方面来看，宽带互联网的普及会导致社交行为和应对情绪问题的能力恶化。结果主要集中在年轻女性群体，这表明高强度的互联网使用会放大宽带互联网接入对心理健康的负面影响。
