SynthesisResearch on child and adolescent psychopathology2021
Social Media and Depression Symptoms: a Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Research on child and adolescent psychopathology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 6 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
109 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 275 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review: Social media use and adolescent mental health - an umbrella review and power analysis.Child and adolescent mental health · 2026Pooled it
- The Relationship Between Social Media Addiction, Depression, Stress, and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Pooled it
- The association between the use of digital technologies and positive youth development: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Preventing depression in high-income countries-A systematic review of studies evaluating change in social determinants.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Bibliometric insights into astrocytic roles in depression and treatment.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths' interactions with electronic screens.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Social-networks use as adaptive or maladaptive strategy for coping with stress.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Exposure to disaster information on social media, depressive symptoms, and alcohol and cannabis use in the aftermath of two natural disasters.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Association between problematic internet use and depressive symptoms among individuals at high-risk of cannabis use disorder: a cross-sectional study in Quebec (Canada).Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Not All Screen Use is Equal: Shifting the Focus from Screen Time to Problematic Use in Child and Adolescent Well-Being Research.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Social technology use and life satisfaction in a five-wave panel study of US adults.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Adolescent social media use and psychiatric outcomes: a longitudinal mediation analysis via interpersonal distrust, sleep, and self-image.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Digital media balance and mental health: effects of a school-based program.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Affective reactivity to upward social comparisons rather than social media use predicts increases in early adolescents' depressive symptoms.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Latent profile analysis of mindfulness and experiential avoidance associated with social media use disorder.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Effects of Reducing Social Media Use in Women With Depressive Symptoms.Journal of cognitive psychotherapy · 2026Article
- A dyadic perspective on parent and adolescent social media use: the roles of communication, joint technology use, and validation motives in problematic social media use.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Bidirectional Associations Between Engagement with Tobacco Information on Social Media and Young Adults' Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The effects of social media addiction on depression and anxiety among university students: The mediating role of family environment.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Intimate disclosure in online-only friendships predicts adolescents' depressive symptoms.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2026Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Social Networking Sites (SNS) have close to 3 billion users worldwide. Recently, however, SNS have come under media scrutiny for their potential association with depression. Two previous meta-analyses failed to find evidence for a robust concurrent association between SNS use and depression symptoms. However, these analyses focused primarily on the time spent using SNS. The current meta-analysis is the first to consider the multi-dimensional nature of SNS use, and examines separately the quantitative associations of depression symptoms to SNS use in three types of SNS studies examining three distinct constructs of SNS use: time spent using SNS, intensity of SNS use, and problematic SNS use. Sixty-two studies (N = 451, 229) met inclusion criteria. Depression symptoms were significantly, but weakly, associated with time spent using SNS (r = 0.11) and intensity of SNS use (r = 0.09). However, the association of depression symptoms to problematic SNS use was moderate (r = 0.29), was significantly higher than for time spent using SNS (Q
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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.