ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2024
Detecting adolescent depression through passive monitoring of linguistic markers in smartphone communication.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Recommendations for Research and Clinical Implementation of Ambulatory Assessment, Mood Monitoring, Digital Phenotyping, and Remote Measurement Technology in Mood Disorders: Synthesis of Systematic Review Findings.JMIR mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Dropout, Attrition, Adherence, and Compliance in Mood Monitoring and Ambulatory Assessment Studies for Depression and Bipolar Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Engagement, Acceptability, and Effectiveness of the Self-Care and Coach-Supported Versions of the Vira Digital Behavior Change Platform Among Young Adults at Risk for Depression and Obesity: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mental health · 2024Trial
- Smartphone-Measured Sleep Health Risk Factors Detect Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among Adolescents.JAACAP open · 2026Article
- Fine-tuning large language models for detecting negative self-referential language in smartphone text among youth with depression.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2026Article
- How US Youth Use AI Chatbots: Conversation Patterns From Naturalistic Keystroke Observations.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Using natural language processing to track negative emotions in the daily lives of adolescents.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2026Article
- Emotion-Processing Biases and Neural Connectivity in Remitted Major Depressive Disorder among Adolescents.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Smartphone language and resting-state EEG indicators of self-focused attention prospectively predict major depressive disorder risk in adolescents.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- A multilevel meta-analysis of passive smartphone sensing of adolescent mental health.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Predicting Momentary Suicidal Ideation From Smartphone Screenshots Using Vision-Language Models: Prospective Machine Learning Study.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- In their own words: case studies of adolescent smartphone language preceding suicide-related hospitalizations.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2026Article
- Affective language and transdiagnostic symptom burden in clinically referred adolescents: a multicenter Turkish sentence-completion study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- EEG-based brain connectivity and sentiment analysis from smartphone social communication: insights into remitted major depressive disorder among adolescents.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2025Article
- A longitudinal study of objective dating app usage and its relation to mental health in adolescents.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- Testing the feasibility of passive sensing among adolescents: Implications for mental health.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- Families being supportive together: A multimethod and multi-informant intensive longitudinal study of family protective mechanisms for adolescent depression.Psychological assessment · 2025Article
- Observational
- Depression links to unstable resting-state brain dynamics: insights from hidden markov models and functional network variability.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Using Smartphone GPS Data to Detect the Risk of Adolescent Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors.JAMA network open · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCross sectional studies have identified linguistic correlates of major depressive disorder (MDD) in smartphone communication. However, it is unclear whether monitoring these linguistic characteristics can detect when an individual is experiencing MDD, which would facilitate timely intervention.
methodsApproximately 1.2 million messages typed into smartphone social communication apps (e.g. texting, social media) were passively collected from 90 adolescents with a range of depression severity over a 12-month period. Sentiment (i.e. positive vs. negative valence of text), proportions of first-person singular pronouns (e.g. 'I'), and proportions of absolutist words (e.g. 'all') were computed for each message and converted to weekly aggregates temporally aligned with weekly MDD statuses obtained from retrospective interviews. Idiographic, multilevel logistic regression models tested whether within-person deviations in these linguistic features were associated with the probability of concurrently meeting threshold for MDD.
resultsUsing more first-person singular pronouns in smartphone communication relative to one's own average was associated with higher odds of meeting threshold for MDD in the concurrent week (OR = 1.29; p = .007). Sentiment (OR = 1.07; p = .54) and use of absolutist words (OR = 0.99; p = .90) were not related to weekly MDD.
conclusionsPassively monitoring use of first-person singular pronouns in adolescents' smartphone communication may help detect MDD, providing novel opportunities for early intervention.
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