Uncertainty about social media’s role in adolescent mental health

Although there is a slight yet significant positive link between anxiety and depression in adolescents and the time they spend on social media, as well as their engagement on different platforms, the jury is still out on whether social media is to blame for the current mental health crisis among young people.

In a study recently published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, researchers from Cambridge University and Stellenbosch University (SU) caution against drawing reliable conclusions about the relationship between social media use and mental health.

They reviewed 143 studies published in English between 2007 and 2023 on the link between social media and the mental health of more than one million adolescents. They focused on articles that reported at least one quantitative measure of social media use (time spent, active vs passive use, activity, content, user perception, and others) and internalising symptoms (anxiety, depression, or both).

The researchers point out that one in five children and adolescents globally have a mental health condition, most commonly disorders such as anxiety or depression. They add that there are mounting concerns that social media, now ubiquitous (97% of young people are daily users), is accelerating current mental health declines.

In response to widespread concerns about social media’s influence on adolescent mental health, most research has studied adolescents from the general population, overlooking clinical groups, i.e. those who have received a diagnosis of anxiety and depression or a related internalising disorder (irrespective of whether they were actively seeking treatment at the time).

“Our study reveals a significant gap in research on clinical populations, a crucial gap given the growing public concern about the rise in severe mental health issues among adolescents. The lack of evidence limits the applicability of current research and impedes our ability to assess and compare the impact of social media on mental health in both clinical and general populations,” says one of the co-authors, Dr Douglas Parry from the Department of Information Science at SU.

“We found that 11% of studies examined clinical populations, while 88% recruited adolescents from the general population.

“Adolescents with clinical-level anxiety and depression often experience greater social withdrawal, sleep problems, low self-esteem, heightened susceptibility to peer influence, and excessive rumination compared to their peers in the general population. These symptoms may alter their social media interaction and its impact on their mental health, but there has not been enough research focusing on this group to know whether this is the case.”

According to the researchers, this study’s findings highlighted the moderate to high levels of variability typical in this research area.

They say that scientific research investigating social media’s impact on adolescent mental health has failed to provide clarity.

“Despite our initial findings, there’s still a real risk that we are incorrectly generalising results from the general population to young people with mental health conditions.”

They point out that the potential impact of their findings extends beyond research to clinical practice and policymaking.

“For clinicians, more research on clinical populations could enrich strategies for patient consultations and family education, allowing for the integration of social media management into treatment plans,” according to the researchers. “For policymakers, it could shape policies for safer social media platforms and funding allocation toward mental health programmes for adolescents who are at risk.

“In a world increasingly saturated by digital technology, we cannot afford to design prevention programmes, interventions, and regulations without knowing that they work for everyone, especially the most vulnerable,” the researchers add.

• Source: Luisa Fassi; Kirsten Thomas; Douglas A. Parry; Amelia Leyland-Craggs; Tamsin J. Ford & Amy Orben 2024. Social Media Use and Internalizing Symptoms in Clinical and Community Adolescent Samples. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Pediatrics. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.2078