Screens and adolescents: in Montpellier, child psychiatrist Diane Purper-Ouakil coordinates a European study

Diane Purper Ouakil coordonne l’étude européenne. Midi Libre – SYLVIE CAMBON

Child psychiatrist Diane Purper-Ouakil is the lead investigator in France for the BootStRaP project, funded by the European Union, which aims to better understand young people's relationship with screens and proposes an action strategy to limit problematic use. A thousand adolescents will participate in the survey, led from Montpellier, which will be launched over three years.

Diane Purper-Ouakil is head of the child and adolescent psychiatry department at the Montpellier University Hospital.

What is the BootStRaP project about?

It is a project financed by European funds coordinated by a colleague from the University of Hertfordshire, England, Naomi Fineberg. It is based on a study that it has already carried out, but on a smaller scale, on the profiles of problematic users of the internet, games and social networks at young people.

The evaluation starts at the start of the next school year. This involves validating problematic use profiles. To summarize, there are young people who use it impulsively, with great difficulty interrupting their rather playful consumption. And on the other hand, we have compulsive users with a need to control information. They also have a lot of trouble dropping out, but not for the same reasons.

We want to develop an application which should be a self-monitoring tool for young people, so that they can be warned of problematic use, and that they have access to ;comparative information with that of other young people of their age for example.

I am responsible for coordinating the project for France.

It won't just be a matter of telling young people "You've exceeded your screen time" ?

No, of course. There must be an educational virtue, we must be able to send small notifications, perhaps direct us towards other activities…hellip; it will not be moralistic, and it will have to be engaging. It’s a challenge.

"At college, you can question your critical thinking"

Where are you in the project ?

We are dealing with the very first phase, the evaluation phase, which also involves an application that will collect all the so-called passive information that a mobile phone collects, for example: connection time, type of use, etc. But for confidentiality reasons, we will not know anything about the networks used, whether it is Instagram, or TiK Tok…

This evaluation will last one year. The second year will be devoted to building the application and launching a pilot study. These are phases that we wanted to be participatory, with student ambassadors and teacher ambassadors who help us. The third year will be the comparative phase with three groups, compulsive users, impulsive users, and a third group where profiles will be taken into account. They will be subject to different interventions. We are going to test three strategies and above all we want to know if a personalized intervention is of interest.

You have recruited the participants ?

No, it starts in September, and we must, in advance, obtain authorization from the ethics committees in the different participating countries.

How many countries are affected ?

In the recruiters, there are six to eight countries, out of a total of twelve countries involved.

Which age group is targeted ?

Middle school students, or young people who have just entered high school.

Because it was at that age that we realized that use was potentially the most problematic?

Yes. And it’s also the age when we think we can question our critical thinking and our possibility of self-regulation.

"This is the first time we've gone this far in customization"

This is the first time that this strategy has been considered ? Warning messages have been multiplying for months, Emmanuel Macron has brought together a group of experts on the subject, who made proposals… there, it’s something else again?

This is the first study that goes this far in personalization. We have data which shows that very general interventions do not change behavior.

Days or weeks without a screen doesn't work?

There are a lot of initiatives, and that's fortunate, it means that people are asking questions. That’s a good sign. But if we look at it on a scientific level, we often can't say anything about it. We don't have solid data because there is never a real evaluation.

Including in the group of experts brought together by the President of the Republic ?

They based themselves on the existing literature but they didn’test anything… But the report clearly shows that there are reasons for concern, problematic uses, but things are very complex because we are in a dynamic where the use of screens is progressing quickly. The uses of five years ago are already completely outdated. Everything in this area expires very quickly.

This is why our research structure will remain active.

"The descendant, parental side, does not work"

You notice very problematic uses among young people at the Montpellier University Hospital ? It is time to act ?

Absolutely, these are questions that are very present in our parent groups and in our consultations. Parents wonder at what level screens become harmful, they no longer really have the codes to know what is happening. We see young people involved or victims of harassment, it’is relatively common, or permeable to rumors… that a young person can ask themselves the question “I receive this content, should I re-post it or is it problematic, should I talk to someone about it?” ;a ?" It won't be bad.

In the preparatory meetings, we see that there are quite a few young people who ask questions. And it’s interesting for us to reach the general public and not just young people who consult. Until now, we had never recruited directly from colleges.

The emergency is in this age group, more than among the youngest, or young adults?

I don't know… other projects are needed. We sought to act among young people who we still think are malleable. And we believe in the idea of ​​appealing to their own sense of responsibility, their maturity, rather than acting on something that does not work very well in my opinion, the parental top-down side. Young people try to get around that. And then the parents complain, forbid… all that is very complicated.

Which middle school students did you start working with ?

The college students from Jeu de Mail, Croix d’Argent, Marcel-Pagnol in Montpellier, and a college in Clapiers.