Youth gambling, videogaming and screen media activity: How can we protect youth in the current technology environment?
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Use of digital technologies has been changing rapidly, with many children and adolescents having smartphones and accessing the internet at high frequency and for multiple purposes. How different types and patterns of screen media activity relate to youth development and health is an active area of investigation, with new data supporting recently introduced guidelines. For example, in May of 2023, the US Surgeon General issued an advisory on social media impacts on the mental health of adolescents. In this presentation, a current understanding of youth gambling, gaming, and other behaviors that may be conducted on the internet (use of social media, viewing of pornography) will be discussed. Current findings linking screen media activity, internalizing and externalizing behaviors and sleep concerns and links with brain measures will be presented. How current nomenclature systems consider gambling, gaming and other internet use disorders will be considered, as will how to identify and intervene to help youth with concerns in these domains. Practical tips for concerned parents will also be presented as will policy efforts to protect youth.
Objectives
1. Understand how the DSM-5 and ICD-11 consider gambling and gaming disorders and other disorders due to addictive behaviors.
2. Appreciate the range and impact of screen media activity on developing youth.
3. Understand how to help youth navigate use of digital technologies and progress toward adulthood in a healthy fashion.
Marc Potenza, PhD, MD
Albert E Kent Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Neuroscience; Director, Center of Excellence in Gambling Research; Director, Yale Program for Research on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders; Director, Women and A
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-specialty training in addiction psychiatry. He completed his post-high-school training at Yale: BS/MS (Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics), MD, PhD (Cell Biology), internship, psychiatric residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship. Currently, he is an Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neuroscience at the Yale School of Medicine where directs the Division on Addictions Research, Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women's Health Research at Yale and Yale Research Program on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders.
Dr. Potenza is on editorial boards of 15 journals (including editor-in-chief of Current Addiction Reports) and on the Boards of multiple national/international organizations including the International Society of Addiction Medicine for which he is the incoming President-elect. He has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care. He has published extensively (over 800 publications) and is ranked first globally by the independent firm Expertscape in multiple clinical research categories including addictive, impulsive and compulsive behaviors. He has consulted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Registry of Effective Programs, National Institutes of Health, American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization on matters of addiction.
Dr. Potenza's research has focused on the neurobiology and treatment of addictions and other disorders characterized by impaired impulse control and reward-related motivations. Most of this work has focused on understanding clinical and neurobiological underpinnings of these disorders, and their co-occurrences with other psychiatric disorders, in order to advance prevention and treatment strategies. Dr. Potenza's research has applied neuroimaging, genetic, epidemiological and clinical trials methodologies to gain knowledge and improve prevention and treatment strategies for addictive behaviors/disorders. This work has involved identifying potential intermediary phenotypes, like facets of impulsivity, that may in part explain the frequent co-occurrence of psychiatric conditions and represent novel targets for prevention and treatment strategies.
Dr. Potenza has mentored over 200 Scholars in clinical research and neuroscience. He also co-directs training programs focusing on addiction treatment development research at Yale and alcohol use, stress and psychopathology in Thailand (Yale-Chulalongkorn collaboration).
