The impact of heavy and disordered use of games and social media on adolescents’ psychological, social, and school functioning

Abstract

AimTo extend the scholarly debate on (a) whether or not the compulsive use of games and social media should be regarded as behavioral addictions (Kardefelt-Winther et al., 2017) and (b) whether the nine DSM-5 criteria for Internet gaming disorder (IGD; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) are appropriate to distinguish highly engaged, non-disordered users of games and social media from disordered users, this study investigated the impact of engaged and disordered use of games and social media on the psychosocial well-being and school performances of adolescents.MethodsAs part of the Digital Youth Project of the University of Utrecht, a three-wave longitudinal sample of 12- to 15-year-old adolescents (N = 538) was utilized. Three annual online measurements were administered in the classroom setting, including IGD, social media disorder, life satisfaction, and perceived social competence. Schools provided information on students’ grade point average.ResultsThe symptoms of disordered use of games and social media showed to have a negative effect on adolescent’s life satisfaction, and the symptoms of disordered gaming showed a negative impact on adolescents’ perceived social competence. On the other hand, heavy use of games and social media predicted positive effects on adolescents’ perceived social competence. However, the heavy use of social media also predicted a decrease in school performances. Several gender differences in these outcomes are discussed.ConclusionThe findings propose that symptoms of disordered use of games and social media predict a decrease in the psychosocial well-being and school performances of adolescents, thereby meeting one of the core criteria of behavioral addictions.

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

“…Eleven publications were reviews or meta-analyses and included primary studies from different settings (Aboujaoude et al, 2015;Best et al, 2015;Hamm et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2015;Fisher et al, 2016;Foody et al, 2017;Marchant et al, 2017;Curtis et al, 2018;Erfani and Abedin, 2018;John et al, 2018;Memon et al, 2018). One study used both a home and school setting (Erreygers et al, 2018), and 11 (14%) of the included studies did not mention the study setting for data collection (Ferguson et al, 2014;Tseng and Yang, 2015;Fahy et al, 2016;Burnette et al, 2017;Jafarpour et al, 2017;Wolke et al, 2017;O'Reilly et al, 2018;Twenge et al, 2018;Throuvala et al, 2019;Twenge and Campbell, 2019).…”

“…Most studies had a focus on different negative aspects of mental health, as evident from the frequently used terms in Figures 2, 3. The most studied aspect was depression, with 23 (29%) studies examining the relationship between social media use and depressive symptoms (Ferguson et al, 2014;Neira and Barber, 2014;O'Connor et al, 2014;Banjanin et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2015;Spears et al, 2015;Tseng and Yang, 2015;Fahy et al, 2016;Banyai et al, 2017;Brunborg et al, 2017;Colder Carras et al, 2017;Larm et al, 2017;Nesi et al, 2017a;Salmela-Aro et al, 2017;Fredrick and Demaray, 2018;Houghton et al, 2018;Niu et al, 2018;Twenge et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Wartberg et al, 2018). Twenty of the included studies focused on different aspects of good mental health, such as well-being, happiness, or quality of life (Best et al, 2014(Best et al, , 2015Bourgeois et al, 2014;Ferguson et al, 2014;Cross et al, 2015;Koo et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2015;Spears et al, 2015;Fahy et al, 2016;Foerster and Roosli, 2017;Przybylski and Bowes, 2017;Yan et al, 2017;Booker et al, 2018;de Lenne et al, 2018;Erfani and Abedin, 2018;…”

“…Five studies saw how drug use and social media use affected each other (O'Connor et al, 2014;Merelle et al, 2017;Sampasa-Kanyinga et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2019;Larm et al, 2019). Self-harm and suicidal behavior was the focus of eleven studies (O'Connor et al, 2014; Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis, 2015; Tseng and Yang, 2015;Kim, 2017;Marchant et al, 2017;Merelle et al, 2017;Fredrick and Demaray, 2018;John et al, 2018;Memon et al, 2018;Twenge et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). Other areas of focus other than the aforementioned are loneliness, selfesteem, fear of missing out and other non-pathological measures (Neira and Barber, 2014;Banyai et al, 2017;Barry et al, 2017;Colder Carras et al, 2017).…”

“…The studies included in the current scoping review often focus on specific, widely used, social media and social networking services, such as 31 (39%) studies focusing on Facebook (Bourgeois et al, 2014;Meier and Gray, 2014;Banjanin et al, 2015;Cross et al, 2015;Hanprathet et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2015;Spears et al, 2015;Boyle et al, 2016;de Vries et al, 2016;Frison and Eggermont, 2016;Harbard et al, 2016;Banyai et al, 2017;Barry et al, 2017;Brunborg et al, 2017;Larm et al, 2017;Merelle et al, 2017;Nesi et al, 2017a,b;Rousseau et al, 2017;Tiggemann and Slater, 2017;Booker et al, 2018;de Lenne et al, 2018;Lai et al, 2018;Marengo et al, 2018;Marques et al, 2018;Memon et al, 2018;Sampasa-Kanyinga et al, 2018;Settanni et al, 2018;Twenge et al, 2018), 11 on Instagram (Sampasa-Kanyinga and Lewis, 2015; Boyle et al, 2016; Sampasa-Kanyinga and Chaput, 2016; Barry et al, 2017;Brunborg et al, 2017;Frison and Eggermont, 2017;Nesi et al, 2017a;Marengo et al, 2018;Memon et al, 2018;Sampasa-Kanyinga et al, 2018), 11 including Twitter (Richards et al, 2015;Spears et al, 2015;Harbard et al, 2016;…”

“…Amongst the 79 included studies, only six (8%) studies had participants of one gender (Ferguson et al, 2014;Meier and Gray, 2014;Best et al, 2015;Burnette et al, 2017;Jafarpour et al, 2017;Tiggemann and Slater, 2017). Sixteen studies (20%) did not mention the gender distribution of the participants (Aboujaoude et al, 2015;Best et al, 2015;Hamm et al, 2015;Richards et al, 2015;Fisher et al, 2016;Foody et al, 2017;Marchant et al, 2017;Curtis et al, 2018;Erfani and Abedin, 2018;John et al, 2018;Memon et al, 2018;O'Reilly et al, 2018;Twenge et al, 2018;Twenge and Campbell, 2019). Several of these were meta-analyses or reviews (Aboujaoude et al, 2015;Best et al, 2014;Curtis et al, 2018;Foody et al, 2017;John et al, 2018;Erfani and Abedin, 2018;Wallaroo, 2020).…”