Social Media Use and Mental Health and Well-Being Among Adolescents – A Scoping Review

Abstract

Introduction: Social media has become an integrated part of daily life, with an estimated 3 billion social media users worldwide. Adolescents and young adults are the most active users of social media. Research on social media has grown rapidly, with the potential association of social media use and mental health and well-being becoming a polarized and much-studied subject. The current body of knowledge on this theme is complex and difficult-to-follow. The current paper presents a scoping review of the published literature in the research field of social media use and its association with mental health and well-being among adolescents. Methods and Analysis: First, relevant databases were searched for eligible studies with a vast range of relevant search terms for social media use and mental health and well-being over the past five years. Identified studies were screened thoroughly and included or excluded based on prior established criteria. Data from the included studies were extracted and summarized according to the previously published study protocol. Results: Among the 79 studies that met our inclusion criteria, the vast majority (94%) were quantitative, with a cross-sectional design (57%) being the most common study design. Several studies focused on different aspects of mental health, with depression (29%) being the most studied aspect. Almost half of the included studies focused on use of non-specified social network sites (43%). Of specified social media, Facebook (39%) was the most studied social network site. The most used approach to measuring social media use was frequency and duration (56%). Participants of both genders were included in most studies (92%) but seldom examined as an explanatory variable. 77% of the included studies had social media use as the independent variable. Conclusion: The findings from the current scoping review revealed that about 3/4 of the included studies focused on social media and some aspect of pathology. Focus on the potential association between social media use and positive outcomes seems to be rarer in the current literature. Amongst the included studies, few separated between different forms of (inter)actions on social media, which are likely to be differentially associated with mental health and well-being outcomes.

Tracking private WhatsApp discourse about COVID-19: A longitudinal infodemiology study in Singapore

“…More broadly, our findings align with a large body of literature that has linked social media usage with adverse mental health (Karim et al, 2020;Schønning et al, 2020;Sharma et al, 2020). This pattern has been observed both outside and inside the crisis context: for example, even in the current COVID-19 crisis, the frequency of social media usage has been found to predict depression symptoms (Ni et al, 2020).…”

How do Norwegian Adolescents Experience The Role of Social Media in Relation to Mental Health and Well-Being: A Qualitative Study

“…As a relatively new phenomenon, the relationship between social media use and mental health has, however, not been extensively studied, and the quality of published studies are in general low according to a recent review (Webster et al, 2020). The majority of studies have looked at quantitative measures of time spent on social media and the frequency of use in relation to different mental health outcomes and to a lesser extent speci c behaviours on social media (Schønning, Hjetland, Aarø, & Skogen, 2020).…”

Through the Looking Glass of Social Media. Focus on Self-Presentation and Association with Mental Health and Quality of Life. A Cross-Sectional Survey-Based Study.

“…Third, the survey did not include measures of frequency or duration of social media use among adolescents. However, such measure are likely to be inaccurate and biased [50,51], and may be non-germane [5][6][7]20]. Fourth, the study population was limited to one senior high school in Norway, which is likely to reduce the generalisability of our ndings.…”

“…Social media can be de ned as "highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content" [4]. Social media use among adolescents has been linked to mental health and well-being [5], as some studies indicate that social media use is associated with more mental health problems and decreased well-being. However, most of the studies investigating this association focus primarily on frequency and duration of use [5][6][7], providing little knowledge of how various types of social media activities may be differentially linked to mental health and well-being.…”

“…Social media use among adolescents has been linked to mental health and well-being [5], as some studies indicate that social media use is associated with more mental health problems and decreased well-being. However, most of the studies investigating this association focus primarily on frequency and duration of use [5][6][7], providing little knowledge of how various types of social media activities may be differentially linked to mental health and well-being. Although a growing number of studies in general indicate that social media use should be considered multifaceted, and that distinct uses is differentially associated with adverse outcomes [see for instance 8, 9], there is still a dearth of studies taking this into consideration.…”