SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2020
Relationship Between Depression and the Use of Mobile Technologies and Social Media Among Adolescents: Umbrella Review.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review: Social media use and adolescent mental health - an umbrella review and power analysis.Child and adolescent mental health · 2026Pooled it
- An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths' interactions with electronic screens.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2022Pooled it
- Methodological approaches for assessing certainty of the evidence in umbrella reviews: A scoping review.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Role of dietary factors in the prevention and treatment for depression: an umbrella review of meta-analyses of prospective studies.Translational psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The Effects of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From a Population-Based Cohort Study in Australia.The Medical journal of Australia · 2026Article
- Problematic patterns of social media use increase with spontaneous cortical activity and transdiagnostic mental health symptoms in youth.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- The association between ADHD symptoms and different dimensions of problematic use of social media among adolescent: results from the "LifeOnSoMe"-study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- The Association Between Youth Screentime, Suicide Behaviors, and Protective and Risk Factors in a United States Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Sample.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Parental Internet-Specific Rules and the Onset of Adolescents' Problematic Social Media Use: Prospective Study Testing Potential Moderators.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Effects of Social Media Use on Youth and Adolescent Mental Health: A Scoping Review of Reviews.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- A harsher reality for adolescents with depression on social media.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Latino adolescents' experiences of residential risks on social media and mental health implications.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Genetic predisposition to digital device use and the risk of five psychiatric disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Smartphone use, gender, and adolescent mental health: Longitudinal evidence from South Korea.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- The effect of mobile social media on the mental health status of Chinese international students: an empirical study on the chain mediation effect.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Digital behavioral dietary interventions to promote a healthy diet among children and adolescents: a scoping review of technologies, design, behavioral theory, and assessed outcomes.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2024Article
- Social media behaviors and symptoms of anxiety and depression. A four-wave cohort study from age 10-16 years.Computers in human behavior · 2023Article
- Chronic social comparison elicits depression- and anxiety-like behaviors and alterations in brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression in male rats.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Problematic Use of Social Networks during the First Lockdown: User Profiles and the Protective Effect of Resilience and Optimism.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the relevance of mobile technologies and social media (MTSM) for adolescents, their association with depressive disorders in this population remains unclear. While there are previous reviews that have identified the use of MTSM as a risk factor for developing depression, other reviews have indicated their possible preventive effect.
objectiveThe aim of this review was to synthesize the current evidence on the association between MTSM use and the development or prevention of depressive disorders in adolescents.
methodsAn umbrella review was conducted using information published up to June 2019 from PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library. Systematic reviews focusing on the adolescent population (up to 20 years old) and depression and its potential relationship with MTSM use were included. Screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts was performed. After selecting the reviews and given the heterogeneity of the outcome variables and exposures, a narrative synthesis of the results was carried out.
resultsThe search retrieved 338 documents, from which 7 systematic reviews (3 meta-analyses) were selected for data extraction. There were 11-70 studies and 5582-46,015 participants included in the 7 reviews. All reviews included quantitative research, and 2 reviews also included qualitative studies. A statistically significant association between social media and developing depressive symptoms was reported in 2 reviews, while 5 reviews reported mixed results.
conclusionsExcessive social comparison and personal involvement when using MTSM could be associated with the development of depressive symptomatology. Nevertheless, MTSM might promote social support and even become a point of assistance for people with depression. Due to the mixed results, prospective research could be valuable for providing stronger evidence.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.