Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health

Dante Donati, Ruben Durante, Francesco Sobbrio and Dijana Zejcirovic

No 9676, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: How does the internet affect young people’s mental health? We study this question in the context of Italy using administrative data on the universe of cases of mental disorders diagnosed in Italian hospitals between 2001 and 2013, which we combine with information on broadband internet availability at the municipal level. Our identification strategy exploits differences in the proximity of municipalities to the pre-existing voice telecommunication infrastructure, which was previously irrelevant but became salient after the advent of the internet. Our findings indicate that broadband internet access raises the prevalence of mental disorders among younger cohorts (born between 1985 and 1995) by 0.08 standard deviation units, but it does not impact older individuals (born between 1974 and 1984). The adverse effects are driven by individuals who were exposed to broadband internet early in their lives (before the age of 20). These effects persist even when examining instances of self-harm and urgent or compulsory hospitalizations, indicating that the negative outcomes are not merely a result of increased awareness and detection of these conditions. Finally, we show that the detrimental impacts span across different pathologies, including depression, anxiety, drug abuse, and personality disorders for both genders, in addition to eating disorders for females.

Keywords: mental health; internet; ADSL; 3G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I31 L82 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Working Paper: Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health (2022)
Working Paper: Lost in the Net? Broadband Internet and Youth Mental Health (2022)
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