{
  "id": 2562538,
  "title": "The “sense of absence” may explain why disconnected teens turn to addictive behaviors",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/22/the-sense-of-absence-may-explain-why-disconnected-teens-turn-to",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-22T11:00:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/the-sense-of-absence-may-explain-why-disconnected-teens-turn-to-addictive-behaviors/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Recent psychological studies suggest that a sense of emotional detachment, or \"sense of absence,\" may contribute to why some teenagers engage in addictive behaviors. The sensation, characterized by feeling detached from one's own life and experiencing a lack of recognition from others, can connect poor family communication to various forms of addiction. Researchers from Bar-Ilan University and Yale University explored the sense of absence, developing the Sense of Absence Scale. This questionnaire was administered to 1,555 Israeli adolescents aged 14 to 18. The scale effectively captured a unique emotional experience that differed from general psychological distress, showing a 59% overlap with feelings of emptiness and a 42% overlap with mental pain. The researchers discovered that the sense of absence combines internal emptiness or disconnection with the feeling of being misunderstood by others. Higher scores on the scale were associated with more problematic online behaviors, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, and lower hope and self-compassion. The findings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, indicate that the sense of absence plays a central role in a teenager's psychological network, influencing various addictive behaviors.",
  "summary": "New research suggests adolescents who feel emotionally unnoticed are more likely to engage in addictive behaviors. A newly developed psychological scale reveals how this “sense of absence” acts as a bridge connecting family struggles to teen addiction.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}