Poster 16

[P-16-05] Too Much Screen Time? Binge-Watching Behavior and Its Mental Health Correlates Among Thai University Undergraduates.

*Pongrawee Thiansirikhun¹, Muthita Phanasathit² (1.Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University(Thailand), 2.Department of Psychiatry, Center of Excellence of Applied Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University.(Thailand))

Keywords:

Prevalence,Binge-watching,Mental Health,University,Undergraduates

Background: Binge-watching—a popular media consumption behavior—has been linked to depression, anxiety, and insomnia. However, whether it qualifies as a behavioral addiction remains debated. In Southeast Asia, research on this topic is limited. Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai version of the Problematic Series Watching Scale (Thai-PSWS), and investigate prevalence binge-watching and its associated factors to mental health problems among Thai undergraduates. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 359 undergraduate students at Thammasat University. Participants completed the Thai-PSWS, the Thai version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), and the Thai Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Binge-watching was defined as watching more than one episode of a television series in a single sitting for entertainment purposes. It excluded news, commercials, trailers, social media, and user-generated video platforms. The Thai-PSWS assessed the risk of problematic binge-watching; higher scores indicated a greater likelihood of negative impacts on mental health. Correlation and logistic regression analyses were employed to explored associations with mental health. Results: The Thai-PSWS demonstrated good psychometric validity, with an Index of Item Objective Congruence ranging from 0.6-1.0, a Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of 0.70 (95% CI: 0.56-0.81), and an Intraclass Coefficient of 0.71 (p < 0.01). Binge-watching prevalence was 81.62%. Thai-PSWS scores were significantly positively correlated with Thai PHQ-9 depressive scores (ρ = 0.26, p < 0.01) and Thai GHQ-28 social dysfunction scores (ρ = 0.11, p = 0.04). Predictors for binge-watching included female sex (OR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.10-4.00), higher Thai-PSWS scores (OR = 1.18, 95% CI: 1.09-1.28), and lower Thai PHQ-9 scores (OR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.89-0.98). Discussion: Binge-watching is highly prevalent among Thai undergraduates. While viewing more than one episode, may not inherently indicated behavioral addiction, problematic binge-watching pattern was significantly associated with depression, anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction, and somatic symptoms.