JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

An overwhelming majority of American adolescents have access to smartphones, and recent estimates suggest that they spend considerable time on social media in comparison to other physical and leisure activities. A large body of literature has established that social media use is related to poor mental health, but the complicated relationship between social media and symptoms of anxiety and depression in adolescents is yet to be fully understood.

Objective:

Our primary aim was to investigate the effect of social media use on anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents, exploring physical activity as a mediator.

Methods:

A Qualtrics survey manager recruited adult panel participants between February and March 2019, who indicated they had adolescent children who spoke English. A total of 4,592 adolescent-parent dyads completed the survey, which took approximately 39 minutes. The survey entailed completing online questionnaires assessing various aspects of social media use, psychological symptoms, and psychosocial factors. The average age of adolescent participants was 14.62 (SD = 1.68, [12-17]), and the majority of the adolescent sample was male (52.01%).

Results:

There were significant differences in symptoms based on gender: females reported higher rates of social media use and males reported higher rates of depression. Non-binary and transgender adolescents had higher rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness than the female and male adolescents in the sample. Results showed a positive relationship between social media use and internalizing symptoms, with greater use linked to higher rates of anxiety (r = .26, P <.001), depression (r = .32, P <.001), and loneliness (r = .23, P <.001), replicating prior findings. Physical activity was associated with decreased anxiety and depression symptoms after controlling for other extracurricular activities and social media use ( = -.21, R2 = .24, F (5, 4290) = 266.0, P < .001).

Conclusions:

More social media use is associated with higher rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness among adolescents, controlling for age and gender. Exercise may protect against the potentially harmful effects of social media in some adolescents. Limitations of the current study include its self-report nature and cross-sectional design. Overall, findings suggest the need to tailor interventions for anxious and depressed youth, and caution against over-involvement in extracurricular activities, including exercise. Future work should examine social media use beyond how much time adolescents spend using social media, and instead focus on the type of social media consumption. Clinical Trial: n/a