The 2026 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington D.C., has concluded. From August 6 through August 8, the APA annual meeting was three days of ethics events, networking opportunities, and educational sessions for psychiatry professions from around the world.

Today, we are spotlighting some of the posters presented at the 2026 APA annual meeting related to all forms of addiction. Some descriptions and conclusions were edited for brevity and clarity. To view the full annual meeting program, view the official program.

Addiction Posters from the 2026 APA Annual Meeting

Addiction within the Neurodivergent Community

  • Description: Addiction remains a critical focus of psychological and behavioral research, with increasing attention to cognitive and developmental risk factors. This study examined the relationship between learning disabilities and multiple forms of addiction, including video games, shopping, social media, food, marijuana, nicotine vaping, alcohol, and sexual behavior.
  • Conclusion: Results revealed diagnosis-specific patterns. Participants with ADHD were less likely to report food addiction but more likely to report nicotine vaping addiction, potentially reflecting heightened reward sensitivity. Participants with autism spectrum disorder reported lower rates of shopping, food, marijuana, vaping, and alcohol addictions, suggesting that structure, predictability, and reduced social exposure may serve as protective factors. Individuals with specific learning disorders were less likely to report video game addiction but more likely to report social media and vaping addictions, possibly due to coping-related use and lower cognitive demands. Overall, individuals with learning disabilities exhibited higher rates of shopping, social media, and vaping addictions compared to those without.

Social Media Addiction, Anxiety and ACEs in Young Adults : A Scoping Review

  • Description: Problematic social media use has significantly increased in young adults in recent years, with negative long-term effects on mental health, including anxiety. Adverse childhood experiences, such as childhood emotional abuse, are also highly prevalent and associated with negative impacts on young adult anxiety. Although problematic social media use has been linked with both anxiety and childhood emotional abuse in young adults, and anxiety and childhood emotional abuse have been found to interact with each other, no research to [the researchers’] knowledge has examined associations between all three variables in young adults.
  • Conclusion: Links between problematic social media use and anxiety were bidirectional and involved multiple different variables such as addictive behaviors, negative online feedback, communication overload and emotional investment in social media. Associations between childhood emotional abuse and problematic social media use were understood through anxious attachment, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Childhood emotional abuse was found to be linked to anxiety for young adults through external locus of control, insecure attachment styles, emotional dysregulation, amygdala function, and interpersonal insecurity.

The Psychology Behind TikTok and Short-form Content Addiction: A Present-Bias Perspective

  • Description: Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have introduced short-form video formats, typically limited to around 90 seconds, as a deliberate business innovation relative to traditional long-form video platforms such as YouTube. While this design has proven highly effective in attracting and retaining young users, growing concerns have emerged regarding its potential role in fostering addictive consumption.
  • Conclusion: [The researchers’] analysis shows that present bias naturally leads to overconsumption of immediate gratification and can give rise to addictive behavior. [The researchers] further demonstrate a non-monotonic effect of video shortening on addictive behavior. These findings clarify the behavioral mechanisms underlying short-form video addiction and offer theoretical insights into the welfare and policy implications of regulating short-form digital media platforms.

Parental Psychological Control and Adolescents’ SNS Addiction Tendencies

  • Description: Adolescence is a developmental period marked by heightened sensitivity to peer relationships and others’ evaluations, during which the pervasive use of social networking services has rendered tendencies toward social networking services addiction a salient developmental and social concern. To integratively examine these emotional and cognitive pathways, the present study tested a structural model based on the I-PACE framework, in which parental psychological control influences adolescents’ social networking services addiction tendencies through the sequential mediation of social anxiety and fear of missing out.
  • Conclusion: The results indicated that the proposed model demonstrated an acceptable fit to the data, and significant correlations were observed among paternal and maternal psychological control, social anxiety, fear of missing out, and  social networking services addiction tendencies. These findings support the structural relationships among parental psychological control, social anxiety, fear of missing out, and  social networking services addiction tendencies, and underscore the importance of considering both cognitive and emotional factors in understanding adolescents’  social networking services addiction tendencies.

Relational Dynamics in Recovery: When Attachment Meets Addiction

  • Description: This poster examines relational dynamics among couples engaged in recovery from substance use and explores implications for treatment engagement, relapse risk, and sustained recovery.
  • Conclusion: Conclusions emphasize the importance of assessing couple-level dynamics in substance use treatment. Clinical implications highlight the need for attachment-informed, culturally responsive, and gender-sensitive interventions that address relational patterns, reduce relapse vulnerability, and support both individual and relational recovery.

Objectively Measured Smartphone Usage Patterns and Smartphone Addiction

  • Description: Using a phone app to record app usage patterns over 7-15 days for 137 university students, this study examined how average daily usage duration of different app categories were associated with smartphone addiction, well-being, and daily measured sleep quality.
  • Conclusion: Preliminary results based on correlational analyses found that use of social media apps was positively associated with self-reported phone addiction and negatively associated with well-being though the latter did not reach significance. Other categories of app usage were not associated with the outcomes. Sleep quality was moderately associated with well-being. Overall, the evidence supports the link between excessive social media use and negative mental health for young adults.

Genetic and Physiological Biomarkers Associated with Gaming Addiction

  • Description: Internet Gaming Disorder, recognized in DSM-5 and ICD-11, has been associated with neurobiological mechanisms similar to substance-related addictions. While psychological and behavioral correlates are well documented, the genetic and physiological biomarkers underlying Internet Gaming Disorder remain underexplored.
  • Conclusion: Genetic and physiological biomarkers appear to play a significant role in the neurobiological vulnerability to gaming addiction. These biomarkers may support early identification, risk profiling, and development of targeted interventions. However, methodological heterogeneity and limited longitudinal data highlight the need for more robust, multi-site biomarker research in internet gaming disorder.

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