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Social media use and depressive symptoms-summary of path analysis.
Source publication
Background
Evidence suggests social media use is associated with mental health in young people but underlying processes are not well understood. This paper i) assesses whether social media use is associated with adolescents' depressive symptoms, and ii) investigates multiple potential explanatory pathways via online harassment, sleep, self-esteem a...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... first path model (not shown) found consistent associations for girls and boys, none of the associations reached the criterion for gender differences. The second model estimated common pathways for girls and boys; Fig. 2 gives a graphical indication of the overall strength of the pathways while Table 4 provides detailed estimates. Support was found for all the hypothesised pathways. In Fig. 2, the width of an arrow indicates the strength of support for that pathway. The most im- portant routes from social media use to depressive symptoms are shown to ...
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Citations
... Third, we conduct a mediation analysis utilizing the method by Baron and Kenny (1986). Following the literature (e.g., Fumagalli et al. 2024, Kelly et al. 2018, Viner et al. 2019, Yue & Rich 2023, we analyze whether cyberbullying, body image, chronic pain symptoms, and chronic psychoaffective symptoms explain the effect of problematic social media use on life satisfaction. HBSC Switzerland is a well-established survey study with high data quality (Delgrande Jordan et al. 2023a), with HBSC having the longest nationally representative and internationally comparable time-series of life satisfaction (Marquez et al. 2024). ...
Background and relevance: Social media use (SMU) and mental ill-health in adolescents coincide. However, the causal evidence on the effect of SMU on well-being is inconclusive. The analysis by Orben et al. (2022: Nature Communications 13: 1649) demonstrates that the effect is moderated by age and sex, giving rise to 'developmental windows of sensitivity to social media'. These initial findings call for replication. Data and methods: We pursue four goals: First, we describe the development of adolescents' well-being and problematic SMU with data from the study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Switzerland. Second, we identify the effect of problematic SMU on well-being using HBSC data. Third, we conduct a mediation analysis on whether cyberbullying, body image, chronic pain and psycho-affective symptoms explain the effect. Fourth, to identify the causal effect of SMU (>2h/d) on well-being we use data from the Swiss cohort study Transitions from Education to Employment (TREE) and apply panel regression models. Results: (Problematic) SMU is negatively linked to well-being. Causal inference on TREE data shows that the effect of SMU on life satisfaction only applies to females with low or middle parental educational background until the age of 18 years. Discussion and conclusion: Our study enhances the findings of Orben et al. (2022). It reaffirms the importance of prevention and health promotion targeted at vulnerable groups. As our mediation analysis shows, tackling cyberbullying, and chronic pain and psycho-affective symptoms, as well as fostering a positive body image are promising avenues.
... Moreover, the use of social media necessitates continual response to stimuli, decision-making, and the execution of motor movements, among various other cognitive and behavioral tasks. Previous studies on social media usage have consistently reported negative effects on life satisfaction 7 , overall well-being 44 , and depressive symptoms 45 , among adolescents. Based on these observations, one might speculate that a distinct window of susceptibility to emotion and frequent shifts in task stimuli might be key contributing factors to the observed decrease in cerebellum volumes. ...
Digital media (DM) takes an increasingly large part of children’s time, yet the long-term effect on brain development remains unclear. We investigated how individual effects of DM use (i.e., using social media, playing video games, or watching television/videos) on the development of the cortex (i.e., global cortical surface area), striatum, and cerebellum in children over 4 years, accounting for both socioeconomic status and genetic predisposition. We used a prospective, multicentre, longitudinal cohort of children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study, aged 9.9 years when entering the study, and who were followed for 4 years. Annually, children reported their DM usage through the Youth Screen Time Survey and underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging scans every 2 years. Quadratic-mixed effect modelling was used to investigate the relationship between individual DM usage and brain development. We found that individual DM usage did not alter the development of cortex or striatum volumes. However, high social media usage was associated with a statistically significant change in the developmental trajectory of cerebellum volumes, and the accumulated effect of high-vs-low social media users on cerebellum volumes over 4 years was only β = − 0.03, which was considered insignificant. Nevertheless, the developmental trend for heavy social media users was accelerated at later time points. This calls for further studies and longer follow-ups on the impact of social media on brain development.
... On the other hand, a recent umbrella review concluded that the association between social media use and poor adolescent wellbeing was 'weak' and 'inconsistent' [70]. There have been calls for research to shed light on these inconsistent findings, focusing on the mechanisms that could make social media harmful to adolescents' health [67,[70][71][72][73]. Encounters with social media threats have been proposed as one such mechanism [74]. ...
... Some studies have explored the association between individual and social factors and social media threats under specific conditions; however, there has so far been no comprehensive examination of a broad set of individual and social factors in relation to various social media threats [6][7][8]. Furthermore, despite a recent surge in studies on social media use and health, our understanding of the mechanisms through which social media use might harm adolescent mental health and wellbeing remains limited [67,[70][71][72][73]. This emphasizes the need to determine how various social media threats are associated with health outcomes in adolescence. ...
Background
Social media are immensely popular among adolescents. Thus, concerns have been raised about the threats adolescents encounter on social media and the possible negative health consequences, such as depressive symptoms and anxiety. This study investigated the prevalence of nine social media threats: (1) cyberbullying, (2) sexual harassment, (3) racism, (4) unauthorized distribution of sensitive material, (5) phishing attempts, (6) misinformation, (7) the sale or distribution of drugs, (8) harmful or dangerous social media challenges, (9) content causing appearance pressures. The study also investigated how individual and social factors, problematic social media use (PSMU), and online communication with strangers are associated with social media threat exposure, as well as the association between social media threats and self-rated health, depressive feelings, and anxiety symptoms.
Methods and findings
Nationally representative Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) data from Finland were obtained from 2288 respondents aged 11, 13, and 15 years. Fixed effects regression models were applied. The most common threat, encountered daily and weekly, was misinformation. Regression models showed that individual and social factors, PSMU, and online communication with strangers explained adolescent exposure to social media threats in differing ways. Furthermore, certain factors (e.g., emotional intelligence, family support) were associated with encountering social media threats less frequently, whereas other factors (e.g., PSMU, online communication with strangers) were associated with more frequent encounters. Daily and weekly exposure to social media threats was systematically associated with poor self-rated health, frequent depressive feelings, and anxiety symptoms.
Conclusions
Our study highlights the need for intervention and health promotion efforts to mitigate adolescent exposure to social media threats and ensuing negative health consequences.
... Previous studies have indicated that female users have a higher rate of social media communication than male users (Kelly et al. 2018;Leonhardt and Overå 2021), which could be responsible for female foreign nationals communicating with their friends/colleagues via social media, whereas male foreign nationals turn to translation apps regarding language barriers, especially when face-to-face communication is impossible in the physical world. Given that trust, psychologically speaking, is stable in adulthood in general (Sears and Funk 1999), the research presented here offers an explanation of the positive relationship between frequency and trust, that is, the higher frequency suggesting the higher trust. ...
Trust is important in public health communication to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities during pandemics. This empirical research, using quantitative data from 107 foreign nationals at a university in Shanghai, probes into how trust varied in official translation services (OTS) and non-official translation services (NOTS) during COVID-19. Statistical analysis was carried out by IBM SPSS Statistics 26 and it was found that (1) NOTS which are more frequently used are more trusted compared with OTS; (2) NOTS are uncorrelated with demographics while OTS are correlated with demographics, among which education and trust in OTS suggest a linear positive relationship (Sig. = 0.003, β = 0.467), whereas age and trust in OTS suggest a linear negative relationship (Sig. = 0.027, β = −0.348); (3) there is a positive relationship between the frequency of using services and trust, i.e., higher frequency implies higher trust. The findings of this case study can have implications for policy makers and the representatives of CALD communities.
... This type of representation induces partial, subjective, and often one-sided interpretations of the topic given. Reliable information should be neutral in tone and provide all necessary information in its entirety (Kelly et al., 2018). Online-Shops fall in the same category because they act within a vested interest, framing their content to maximize economic gain. ...
The importance of researching information on the Internet is ever increasing. While ease of use and accessibility are advantages, there is a risk of not being able to adequately assess the relevance and reliability of online sources. With data from the BRIDGE-project (N = 143) we assess the online movements of respondents and track how they researched digitally to answer a task on a generic, accessible topic. We then draw conclusions about their search behavior during this open online performance assessment. The controlled and monitored environment allowed to identify differences in their source selection and how those had an impact on the quality of their written statements respective to the given task.
... Beran and Li [2], Campbell et al. [3], Hinduja and Patchin [4], and Woods and Scott [3], among others, have documented the linkage between compulsive social media use and a spectrum of psychological adversities, including diminished self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. This trend manifests globally, with corroborative findings spanning from the UK [5], Turkey [6], and Japan [7] to Poland [8]. Recent explorations by Culpepper [9] into the interplay between social media habits and mental health among youth have unveiled a strong correlation between social media duration and depressive symptoms, albeit a weaker linkage with anxiety indicators. ...
Within the dynamic realm of social media, the proliferation of harmful content can significantly influence user engagement and emotional health. This study presents an in-depth analysis that bridges diverse domains, from examining the aftereffects of personal online attacks to the intricacies of online trolling. By leveraging an AI-driven framework, we systematically implemented high-precision attack detection, psycholinguistic feature extraction, and sentiment analysis algorithms, each tailored to the unique linguistic contexts found within user-generated content on platforms like Reddit. Our dataset, which spans a comprehensive spectrum of social media interactions, underwent rigorous analysis employing classical statistical methods, Bayesian estimation, and model-theoretic analysis. This multi-pronged methodological approach allowed us to chart the complex emotional responses of users subjected to online negativity, covering a spectrum from harassment and cyberbullying to subtle forms of trolling. Empirical results from our study reveal a clear dose–response effect; personal attacks are quantifiably linked to declines in user activity, with our data indicating a 5% reduction after 1–2 attacks, 15% after 3–5 attacks, and 25% after 6–10 attacks, demonstrating the significant deterring effect of such negative encounters. Moreover, sentiment analysis unveiled the intricate emotional reactions users have to these interactions, further emphasizing the potential for AI-driven methodologies to promote more inclusive and supportive digital communities. This research underscores the critical need for interdisciplinary approaches in understanding social media’s complex dynamics and sheds light on significant insights relevant to the development of regulation policies, the formation of community guidelines, and the creation of AI tools tailored to detect and counteract harmful content. The goal is to mitigate the impact of such content on user emotions and ensure the healthy engagement of users in online spaces.
... Greater SMA has been associated with sleep difficulties, with most studies strongly associating screen time with insufficient sleep duration and delayed bedtimes (Cain & Gradisar, 2010;Carter, Rees, Hale, Bhattacharjee, & Paradkar, 2016;Hale & Guan, 2015;Hisler, Twenge, & Krizan, 2020;Kelly, Zilanawala, Booker, & Sacker, 2018;LeBourgeois et al., 2017;Levenson, Shensa, Sidani, Colditz, & Primack, 2016;Parent, Sanders, & Forehand, 2016;Woods & Scott, 2016). Additionally, SMA has been associated with elevated internalizing/externalizing symptoms in youth (Shannon, Bush, Villeneuve, Hellemans, & Guimond, 2022;Twenge & Campbell, 2018), which may be partially attributed to compromised sleep quality (Hale, Li, Hartstein, & LeBourgeois, 2019). ...
Background and Aims
The precise roles of screen media activity (SMA) and sleep problems in relation to child/adolescent psychopathology remain ambiguous. We investigated temporal relationships among sleep problems, SMA, and psychopathology and potential involvement of thalamus-prefrontal-cortex (PFC)-brainstem structural covariation.
Methods
This study utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study ( n = 4,641 ages 9–12) at baseline, Year1, and Year2 follow-up. Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPMs) investigated reciprocal predictive relationships between sleep duration/problems, SMA, and psychopathology symptoms. A potential mediating role of baseline Thalamus-PFC-brainstem covariation on SMA-externalizing relationships was examined.
Results
Participants were divided into discovery ( n = 2,359, 1,054 girls) and replication ( n = 2,282, 997 girls) sets. CLPMs showed 1) bidirectional associations between sleep duration and SMA in late childhood, with higher frequency SMA predicting shorter sleep duration ( β = −0.10 [95%CI: −0.16, −0.03], p = 0.004) and vice versa ( β = −0.11 [95%CI: −0.18, −0.05], p < 0.001); 2) externalizing symptoms at age 10–11 predicting sleep problems ( β = 0.11 [95%CI: 0.04, 0.19], p = 0.002), SMA ( β = 0.07 [95%CI: 0.01, 0.13], p = 0.014), and internalizing symptoms ( β = 0.09 [95%CI: 0.05, 0.13], p < 0.001) at age 11–12; and 3) externalizing behavior at age 10-11 partially mediating the relationship between baseline thalamus-PFC-brainstem covariation and SMA at age 11–12 (indirect effect = 0.032 [95%CI: 0.003, 0.067], p -value = 0.030). Findings were replicable.
Conclusion
We found bi-directional SMA-sleep-duration associations in late childhood. Externalizing symptoms preceded future SMA and sleep disturbances and partially mediated relationships between structural brain covariation and SMA. The findings emphasize the need for understanding individual differences and developing and implementing integrated strategies addressing both sleep concerns and screen time to mitigate potential impacts on psychopathology.
... There are numerous factors contributing to this decline but one important factor to consider is the change in technology. A study found that new digital technologies are negatively affecting young people's mental health [34]. Though there was high dependency on smartphones and technology during COVID-19, the same dependency is seen even after COVID-19. ...
Since COVID-19, the time spent on the smartphone has increased [1]. Increased use of smartphones might lead to problematic usage which can have negative effects on physical and mental health [2]. Studies have concluded that problematic smartphone usage is positively associated with mind wandering [3]. Thus, an increase in problematic smartphone usage will result in increased mind wandering. Both problematic smartphone usage and mind wandering resulted in poor academic performance, road accidents, academic procrastination, sleep problems, loneliness, anxiety, and depression [4]. Studies have shown that young adults engage in problematic smartphone usage and they report more mind wandering. Also, people use their smartphones [5] and mind wandering [6][7] as a coping strategy to deal with negative thoughts and emotions, which is maladaptive. These factors make the intervening of these variables the need of the hour. The present study aimed to find the effectiveness of mindfulness-based intervention that addresses difficult thoughts and emotions on problematic smartphone usage and mind wandering among college students in Chennai. The sample consisted of 70 female college students between the ages 18-22 years. The 70 students were randomly assigned to intervention (n=35) and control group (n=35). Results revealed that at post-intervention a significant difference in the problematic smartphone usage (t (30) =6.611, p< 0.001) and mind wandering (t (30) =6.165, p< 0.001) scores were observed in the intervention group whereas no difference was observed in the control group. The effect size of the intervention was also found to be large for problematic smartphone usage (d= 1.6) and mind wandering (d= 1.5). In conclusion, mindfulness-based intervention that addresses difficult thoughts and emotions can reduce problematic smartphone usage and mind wandering among college students in Chennai.
... Ultimately, the many negative variables social media inflicts on adolescents lead back to two main outcomes: depression and anxiety. A questionnaire conducted on 10,904 14-year-olds from the U.K revealed that "greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores" [Kel18]. In addition, a meta-analysis with 23 studies showed a correlation between adolescents with psychological distress and problematic Facebook use causes [Mar18]. ...
... There has been a well-documented increase in the ubiquity of digital media and electronic device use in society, particularly amongst adolescents [117,118]. Largely correlational evidence highlights associations between the total daily amount of online activity (social media use especially) and mental health: UK and US studies suggest that heavy users (> 2 h per day) are approximately twice as likely to experience depression and low wellbeing than light users [124,125]. Furthermore, excessive social media use is related to risks of online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem, and poor body image [124], each of which are linked in turn with symptoms of depression. However, ...
... Largely correlational evidence highlights associations between the total daily amount of online activity (social media use especially) and mental health: UK and US studies suggest that heavy users (> 2 h per day) are approximately twice as likely to experience depression and low wellbeing than light users [124,125]. Furthermore, excessive social media use is related to risks of online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem, and poor body image [124], each of which are linked in turn with symptoms of depression. However, ...
Over the past four decades, rates of emotional problems in adolescents have increased in many countries, and outcomes for those with mental health problems have worsened. In this review we explore existing population-based studies to evaluate possible explanations for these trends. We include population-based studies that examine both trends in adolescent emotional problems, as well as risk or protective factors previously hypothesised to be associated with trends in youth depression and anxiety. The available evidence on risk or protective factors trends related to family life, young people’s health behaviours and lifestyle, school environment, peer relationships, as well as poverty. Studies reviewed suggest that trends in emotional problems are associated with increases in parental emotional problems, youth weight-control behaviours and eating disorders, school-related stress, as well as a rise in family poverty and social inequality in the 21st Century. One of the biggest changes in young people’s lives over the last few decades has been the rise of digital media to access information and interact with others, but implications for trends in mental health remain unclear. Other trends are likely to have mitigated against even steeper increases in youth emotional problems, for example improvements in youth substance use and a possible long-term reduction in child maltreatment. Epidemiological studies of unselected cohorts testing explanations for secular trends in mental health are scarce and an urgent priority for future research. Such studies will need to prioritise collection of comparable data in repeated population cohorts. Improving young people’s mental health is a major societal challenge, but considerably more needs to be done to understand the connections between social change and trends in youth mental health.
