Overall time on social media is not related to teen anxiety and depression

Eight-year study shows screen time isn't the problem

October 22, 2019

Science Daily/Brigham Young University

The amount of time teenagers spend on social networking sites has risen 62.5 percent since 2012 and continues to grow. Just last year, the average time teenagers spent on social media was estimated as 2.6 hours per day. Critics have claimed that more screen time is increasing depression and anxiety in teenagers.

However, new research led by Sarah Coyne, a professor of family life at Brigham Young University, found that the amount of time spent on social media is not directly increasing anxiety or depression in teenagers.

"We spent eight years trying to really understand the relationship between time spent on social media and depression for developing teenagers," Coyne said about her study published in Computers in Human Behavior. "If they increased their social media time, would it make them more depressed? Also, if they decreased their social media time, were they less depressed? The answer is no. We found that time spent on social media was not what was impacting anxiety or depression."

Mental health is a multi-process syndrome where no one stressor is likely the cause of depression or anxiety. This study shows that it is not merely the amount of time spent on social media that's leading to an increase in depression or anxiety among adolescents.

"It's not just the amount of time that is important for most kids. For example, two teenagers could use social media for exactly the same amount of time but may have vastly different outcomes as a result of the way they are using it," Coyne said.

The goal of this study is to help society as a whole move beyond the screen time debate and instead to examine the context and content surrounding social media use.

Coyne has three suggestions to use social media in healthier ways.

Be an active user instead of a passive user. Instead of just scrolling, actively comment, post and like other content.

Limit social media use at least an hour before falling asleep. Getting enough sleep is one of the most protective factors for mental health.

Be intentional. Look at your motivations for engaging with social media in the first place.

"If you get on specifically to seek out information or to connect with others, that can have a more positive effect than getting on just because you're bored," Coyne said.

In an effort to understand teenagers' mental health and their social media use, researchers worked with 500 youth between the ages of 13 and 20 who completed once-yearly questionnaires over an eight-year span. Social media use was measured by asking participants how much time they spent on social networking sites on a typical day. To measure depression and anxiety, participants responded to questions with different scales to indicate depressive symptoms and anxiety levels. These results were then analyzed on an individual level to see if there was a strong correlation between the two variables.

At age 13, adolescents reported an average social networking use of 31-60 minutes per day. These average levels increased steadily so that by young adulthood, they were reporting upwards of two hours per day. This increase of social networking, though, did not predict future mental health. That is, adolescents' increases in social networking beyond their typical levels did not predict changes in anxiety or depression one year later.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191022174406.htm

Social media use by teens linked to internalizing behaviors

September 11, 2019

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to report high levels of internalizing behaviors compared to adolescents who do not use social media at all.

The study, published online September 11 in JAMA Psychiatry, examined the time adolescents reported spending on social media and two types of behaviors that can be indicators of mental health problems: internalizing and externalizing. Internalizing can involve social withdrawal, difficulty coping with anxiety or depression or directing feelings inward. Externalizing can include aggression, acting out, disobeying or other observable behaviors.

The study found the use of social media for any amount of time was associated with both a greater risk of reporting internalizing problems alone and concurrent symptoms of both internalizing and externalizing problems. The study found no significant association with social media use and externalizing problems alone. Teens who spent at least three hours on social media a day had the greatest risk for reporting internalizing problems alone.

"Many existing studies have found a link between digital or social media use and adolescent health, but few look at this association across time," says lead author Kira Riehm, MSc, a doctoral student in the Department of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School. "Our study shows that teens who report high levels of time spent on social media are more likely to report internalizing problems a year later. We cannot conclude that social media causes mental health problems, but we do think that less time on social media may be better for teens' health."

Social media use among teens is widespread. Recent polls have found that 95 percent of teens in the U.S. have access to a smartphone and close to 75 percent of teens have at least one social media account. The use of social media has both health risks and benefits. These platforms often provide ways to connect with peers and information and resources on causes important to them, but there are risks of cyberbullying and other digital aggressions.

For their study, the researchers used a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 from the federally funded Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study (PATH) between 2013 and 2016. The study collected data over three years and the analysis involved 6,595 respondents. Each year, participants were asked how much time they spent on social media as well as questions pertaining to symptoms of internal and external mental health problems.

The study found that less than 17 percent of adolescents did not use social media. For those who did report using social media, 2,082 or 32 percent, reported spending less than 30 minutes; 2,000, or about 31 percent, reported spending 30 minutes to three hours; 817, or 12 percent, reported spending three to six hours; and 571, or 8 percent, reported spending more than six hours per day.

Researchers also found that 611 respondents, or about 9 percent, reported experiencing only internalizing problems, while 885, or 14 percent, reported experiencing externalizing problems only; 1,169, or about 18 percent, reported experiencing both internal and external problems; and 3,930, or about 59 percent, reported no/low problems. The study found no links between social media use and mental health problems and gender.

"Social media has the ability to connect adolescents who may be excluded in their daily life. We need to find a better way to balance the benefits of social media with possible negative health outcomes," says Riehm. "Setting reasonable boundaries, improving the design of social media platforms and focusing interventions on media literacy are all ways in which we can potentially find this equilibrium."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190911142733.htm