Source: UCSF As rates of depression and suicide in youth spike, experts are asking whether social media makes kids depressed, or do depressed kids simply spend more time on social media?
“There has been ongoing debate about whether social media contributes to depression or simply reflects underlying depressive symptoms,” said Nagata.
“These findings provide evidence that social media may be contributing to the development of depressive symptoms.” While it’s unclear why social media increases depressive symptoms, prior research points to risks such as cyberbullying and disrupted sleep.
Objective To evaluate longitudinal associations between social media use (time spent on social media) and depressive symptoms across 4 annual waves spanning a 3-year follow-up period from late childhood to early adolescence.
The findings suggest that clinicians should provide anticipatory guidance regarding social media use for young adolescents and their parents.
According to a recent study, preteens’ use of social media improves their depressive symptoms, but not the other way around. Over the course of three years, researchers monitored almost 12,000 young people and found that while depressive symptoms did not predict increased use of social media, screen time did predict later depression.
Children’s average daily social media usage increased from 7 to 73 minutes, and their rates of depressive symptoms increased by 35%. The results indicate that social media use may contribute to the emergence of mental health problems, especially when exposure involves risks like sleep deprivation and cyberbullying.
Key Facts:.
Risk Direction: Rather than the other way around, social media use predicts depressive symptoms.
Alarming Trends: Depressive symptoms increased by 35%, and screen time increased tenfold.
The link between cyberbullying and suicidal thoughts was more than two to five times higher.
The UCSF is the source.
Experts are questioning whether social media causes depression in children or if depressed children just spend more time on social media as rates of depression and youth suicide rise.
Answers are found in a recent study. Researchers at UC San Francisco discovered that preteens’ depressive symptoms rose in tandem with their use of social media. However, the opposite was also true: an increase in depressive symptoms did not foretell a subsequent rise in social media use.
Over the course of the three-year study, children’s daily usage of social media increased from seven to 73 minutes on average, and their prevalence of depressive symptoms increased by 35 percent.
JAMA Network Open published the study, which was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.
Under the direction of Jason Nagata, MD, MSc, an associate professor in the pediatric department at UCSF, the research team looked at data from almost 12,000 children who were 9 to 10 years old and then 12 to 13 years old.
Being one of the first studies to use within-person longitudinal data, the researchers were able to monitor each child’s changes over time in order to precisely evaluate the relationship between social media and depression.
The question of whether social media causes depression or merely reflects underlying depressive symptoms has been up for debate, according to Nagata. These results offer proof that social media usage might be influencing the emergence of depressive symptoms. “.”.
Although the exact reason why social media exacerbates depressive symptoms is unknown, earlier research suggests risks like sleep disturbance and cyberbullying. As a matter of fact, Nagata and colleagues recently published a different study in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas that examined the same participant cohort but concentrated on the consequences of cyberbullying.
According to the study, children who experienced cyberbullying between the ages of 11 and 12 were 2.62 times more likely to report having suicidal thoughts or having attempted suicide a year later. Furthermore, those children had a 2.31-fold increased risk of experimenting with drugs the next year (4.65 times higher for marijuana, 3.37 for nicotine, and 1.92 for alcohol).
Younger generations are increasingly caught in a catch-22 situation where social media is a major means of connecting and communicating with friends while also being linked to risky behavior and depressive symptoms, according to mounting data.
In light of this fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents and children adopt healthier digital habits by utilizing the resources in its Family Media Plan.
“As a father of two young children, I know that telling kids to “get off your phone” doesn’t really work,” Nagata said.
Having candid, nonjudgmental discussions about screen time is one way parents can set an example. Everyone, even adults, can develop healthier digital habits by establishing screen-free periods for the entire family, such as before bed or during meals. “”.
Jason M. Nagata, M.D, is the author from UCSF. Otmar, Christopher D. Dot, Ph. D. M.P, Joan Shim. H. M.P and Priyadharshini Balasubramanian. H. M. Cheng, Chloe, MdotD. Elizabeth J. Li MdotP. A. A. Abubakr. A. al-Shoaibi, Ph. A. along with Iris Y. Shao Ph. A. Please refer to the paper for all authors.
Funding: The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (2022056) and the National Institutes of Health (K08HL159350 and R01MH135492) provided support for this work. Refer to the document for all funding.
Information revealed: Fiona C. Baker, PhD, disclosed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded grants to her while the study was being conducted. There were no other disclosures mentioned.
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Open access to original research.
“Depressive Symptoms and Social Media Use in Early Adolescence” by Jason M. Nagata and colleagues. The JAMA Network is available.
abstract.
Early Adolescent Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms.
Relevance.
Because the majority of research on social media and mental health has been cross-sectional rather than longitudinal and has concentrated on young adults or older adolescents rather than younger adolescents, the US Surgeon General identified critical research gaps in the 2023 Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which precludes evidence-based guidance.
Goal.
To assess the long-term relationships between social media use (the amount of time spent on social media) and depressive symptoms over the course of four yearly waves during a three-year follow-up period that started in late childhood and ended in early adolescence.
Participants, Setting, and Design.
Children between the ages of 9 and 10 at baseline were evaluated in 4 waves (baseline, year 1, year 2, and year 3), with year 3 follow-up through 2022, in this prospective cohort study that used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study across 21 study sites from October 2016 to October 2018. Attrition and missing data caused sample sizes to differ between waves and measures. Every wave of data was saved by the analyses. The period of data analysis was January 2024–March 2025.
exposures.
Self-reported social media usage during the baseline and 3-year follow-up periods.
Principal Results and Measures.
Utilizing longitudinal, cross-lagged structural equation panel models, reciprocal relationships between social media use and depressive symptoms (as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist) were evaluated at baseline and at 1, 2, and 3 years of follow-up. Covariates included parental educational attainment, household income, race and ethnicity, and sex.
Results.
11 876 participants (mean [SD] age, 9.9 [0.6] years) were included in the sample at baseline, with 6196 (52.2 percent) being male. Upon controlling for covariates and stable between-person differences, within-person increases in social media use above the person-level mean were linked to higher levels of depressive symptoms from year 1 to year 2 (β, 0.07; 95 percent CI, 0.01-0.12; P = .01) and from year 2 to year 3 (β, 0.09; 95 percent CI, 0.04-0.14; P < .001). In contrast, depressive symptoms were not linked to any subsequent social media use. Tucker-Lewis index: 0.968; root mean square error of approximation: 0.031 [90 percent CI: 0.029-0.033]; comparative fit index: 0.977; and the final random-intercept cross-lagged panel model showed a good fit. Once demographic and family-level factors were taken into consideration, there was no correlation between between-person differences in social media use and depressive symptoms (β, −0.01; 95 percent CI, −0.04 to 0.02; P = .46). Conclusions and Pertinence. More depressive symptoms in the following year were linked to reporting higher than person-level mean social media use in years 1 and 2 following baseline in this cohort study of 11,876 children and adolescents. According to the findings, clinicians ought to give parents and young adolescents proactive advice about social media use.
