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Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Meta-Analysis
Holly Shannon;
Katie Bush;
Paul Villeneuve;
Kim Hellemans;
Synthia Guimond
ABSTRACT
This study sought to systematically examine problematic social media use in youth and its association with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Our hypothesis was that problematic social media use increased the risk of each mental health outcome measure. A systematic search was conducted to identify studies in adolescents and young adults, using the databases Engineering Village, Psychinfo, Pubmed, and Web of Science. A total of 21 studies were identified in our review and included in the meta-analysis. Our meta-regression shows moderate, but statistically significant correlations between problematic social media use and depression (r = .257, p < .001), anxiety (r = .342, p < .001), and stress (r = .313, p < .001). We did not find evidence of heterogeneity of these summary correlations by age. This study provides further evidence of the association between problematic social media use and negative mental health among adolescents and young adults, and supports future research to focus on the underlying mechanisms of problematic use.
Citation
Please cite as:
Shannon H, Bush K, Villeneuve P, Hellemans K, Guimond S
Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis