Increases in Serious Psychological Distress among Ontario Students between 2013 and 2017: Assessing the Impact of Time Spent on Social Media

Abstract

Objective: The objective of the current research was to examine the association between time spent on social media and serious psychological distress between 2013 and 2017, a period when the rates of both were trending upward. Methods: The current study analyzed population-based data from 3 waves of the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey ( N = 15,398). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the association between time spent on social media and serious psychological distress controlling for theoretically relevant covariates. Interactions were tested to assess whether the association changed over time. Results: The prevalence of serious psychological distress increased from 10.9% in 2013 to 16.8% in 2017 concomitantly with substantial increases in social media usage, especially at the highest levels. In the multivariate context, we found a significant interaction between social media use and the survey year which indicates that the association between time spent on social media and psychological distress has decreased from 2013 to 2017. Conclusion: Although both social media use and psychological distress increased between 2013 and 2017, the interaction between these variables indicates that the strength of this association has decreased over time. This finding suggests that the higher rate of heavy social media use in 2017 compared to 2013 is not actually associated with the higher rate of serious psychological distress during the same time period. From a diffusion of innovation perspective, it is possible that more recent adopters of social media may be less prone to psychological distress. More research is needed to understand the complex and evolving association between social media use and psychological distress. Researchers attempting to isolate the factors associated with the recent increases in psychological distress could benefit from broadening their investigation to factors beyond time spent on social media.

Problematic Use of Internet Among Indonesia University Students: Psychometric Evaluation of Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form

“…43 The present study also in line with an earlier large population-based cohort study conducted among 15,398 Canadian university students showing that SMA was associated with psychological distress. 44 Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that BSMAS had a unidimensional structure which in line with other language versions including English used in Malaysia, 45 Italian, 46 Persian, 47 Hungarian, 48 Chinese, 31 Romanian, 49 and American English. 50 Therefore, the BSMAS appears to be valid in assessing a single latent construct (i.e., addiction to social media) among university students from many different countries.…”

Changes in Media Reporting Quality and Suicides Following National Media Engagement on Responsible Reporting of Suicide in Canada: Changements de la Qualité des reportages dans les médias sur les suicides suite à l’engagement des médias nationaux à la déclaration responsable du suicide au Canada

“…Our results do suggest the possibility that the national initiative and Mindset may have worked synergistically in certain respects but also that some of the original Mindset recommendations might have undermined the message of the national initiative. Our study also does not account for the fact that Canadians increasingly consume information and news using social media, 68 and also the fact that they may be influenced by the entertainment media. 69 Results of our Gestalt narrative findings may also have been influenced by the fact that these years spanned the COVID-19 pandemic and it is unclear if they may be generalizable to other epochs.…”

Rapid and unequal decline in adolescent mental health and well-being 2012–2019: Findings from New Zealand cross-sectional surveys

“…Key among proposed drivers of increased distress is the rapid increase in adolescents’ use of new technologies ( Cook et al, 2021 ; Twenge et al, 2019 ). Although the association between social media use and distress among individuals is not strong ( Cook et al, 2021 ; Odgers and Jensen, 2020 ), the impact of new technologies may have important population effects.…”

“…Artefactual explanations may account for some increased reporting, but corresponding increases in related behavioural phenomena offer converging evidence in support of actual increases in the prevalence of distress (e.g. Cook et al, 2021;Cybulski et al, 2021).…”

“…anxiety, depression) among adolescents since around 2012. While often presented as a global phenomenon, most of these findings are from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada ( Collishaw, 2015 ; Cook et al, 2021 ; Keyes et al, 2019 ; Twenge et al, 2019 ; Wiens et al, 2020 ). Important, although perhaps less marked, increases have been reported in other Western and Northern European nations (e.g.…”