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• Posted March 18, 2026

Too Much Smartphone Use Linked to Disordered Eating in Teens

For many teenagers, a smartphone is essentially an extra limb. 

But new research suggests that spending too much time peering into that digital world might be altering how young people view their bodies and their relationship with food.

A comprehensive review from King’s College London has identified a troubling link between problematic smartphone use and disordered eating symptoms. 

Unlike a formal diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia, these symptoms include emotional overeating, a loss of control when eating and signs of food addiction.

The study also found a link between problematic smartphone use and body image issues.

“It is apparent from our study that, even for people without a diagnosis of an eating disorder, the overuse of a smartphone is associated with poor body satisfaction and altered eating behaviors, and is a potential source of distress,” said senior author Ben Carter, a professor of medical statistics at King’s College.

For the review, he and his team analyzed data from 35 studies from around the world involving more than 52,000 participants with an average age of 17. 

Most of the questionnaires took place in community settings, like universities and schools, measuring everyday life, symptoms and habits of users.

The included studies, published between 2019 and 2025, were from Turkey, China, the United States, Germany, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Italy, Austria, Brazil, South Korea, India and Singapore.

The results, published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, showed a consistent pattern: As phone use increased, so did the severity of eating issues and body dissatisfaction — across all age groups and countries.

The association became particularly alarming for heavy users — those clocking more than seven hours of screen time per day. 

These individuals were significantly more likely to report feeling unhappy with their appearance and using food as a way to cope with distress.

The problem isn't just the device itself, researchers said, but what it exposes young people to during a sensitive time in their lives.

“Adolescence is a key stage of development as individuals evolve their sense of self by observing others,” said study author Johanna Keeler, a visiting lecturer at King’s College London. 

“While smartphones might present an easy way for this to happen, being consistently exposed to idealized images can lead them to compare their own appearance with these 'standards,' leading to poor self-esteem and appearance dissatisfaction,” she added in a news release.

Experts are careful to distinguish problematic use of smartphones — where a person feels psychologically reliant on the device — from full blown addiction. They said more research is needed before characterizing it as addiction. 

However, the impact of extended use on mental health is already visible.

The authors called for earlier intervention strategies to help teens find a digital balance. By catching these behaviors early, it may be possible to prevent more serious health issues down the road, they said.

More information

Visit the National Institute of Mental Health's guide on eating disorders to learn more about signs of eating disorders.

SOURCES: King's College London, news release, March 9, 2026; Journal of Medical Internet Research, March 9, 2026