JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background. There has been controversy over the degree to which technology use in general, and social media exposure specifically, may be associated with adverse youth mental health outcomes. To date, studies have generally been small, exploratory; and have relied on youth self-report to characterize technology/social media use patterns. The goal of this project is to explore the associations between objectively-collected data gathered through a commercially-available app and youth mental health outcomes.

Objective:

The broad goal of this study is to characterize the association between objectively measured technology/social media use and a range of mental health related outcomes.

Methods:

Up to 1000 male, female, and non-binary youth ages 8-17 (inclusive) and their primary caregivers will be enrolled in the study. Youth participants must have their own, dedicated iOS or Android based smart phone or tablet, and they and their parents must be willing and able to download and install the data collection app onto their devices. The study is open to all US based participants who meet the previous 2 criteria. Following eConsent, participants and their caregivers will complete a range of baseline measures electronically, including assessments of psychiatric and social functioning, as well as measures of loneliness, digital stress, and disordered eating. Caregivers will be asked to provide information on health and mental health history for the participants. Youth and caregivers will then complete a similar battery of assessments 1, 2, and 3 months after baseline. Youth participants will also complete daily questions about their mood, stress, physical activity, and sleep. Youth and their caregivers will be compensated for completing measures at each time point. The data collection app gathers a wide range of daily data from the participant's device, including temporal patterns of use, number of and frequency of various app usage, social interactions within apps, and keystroke data. A wide range of analytic methods will be used to address important questions pertinent to the topic of how technology/social media use is related to mental health and wellness outcomes.

Results:

Enrollment was initiated on November 13, 2024 and as of December 12, a total of 9 participants had been enrolled. Data analysis is expected to begin in Spring of 2025, with initial results available in Summer/Fall 2025.

Conclusions:

This study will be among the largest to date to collect both objective device usage data and validated clinically relevant outcome measures. The resulting dataset will be of high value to the field and a range of researchers interested in accessing. Clinical Trial: This study has been registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06664944). It has also been reviewed and approved by WCG IRB (Study ID 1380098)