ArticleBMC public health2022
Does gender matter? The association between different digital media activities and adolescent well-being.
Article in BMC public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- What methods are used to examine representation of mental ill-health on social media? A systematic review.BMC psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Associations between active and passive social media use and anxious affect among adolescents around the world.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Article
- Suicidal Ideation, Screen Time, and Online Harassment Among College Students: Gender Differences in a National Survey, United States, 2023-2024.American journal of public health · 2026Article
- The Impact of Social Media Self-Presentation and Anxiety on Ruminative Exploration Among Women Across Diverse Racial and Ethnic Groups.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploring the Mediating Role of Social Media and Gaming in the Relationship between Adolescents' Feelings of Loneliness, Ostracism and Internalizing and Externalizing symptoms.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Caring for the 'Heads-Down Generation': Screen Time and Physical Health Complaints Among Adolescents in Poland.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Applying a gendered lens to the issue of adolescent social media use and well-being by exploring salient susceptibilities and alternative within-person processes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Social media use and associated food-related habits among Kenyan teenagers: a cross-sectional study of digital influence on public health nutrition.BMC nutrition · 2026Article
- Beyond social media users and game players: patterns of digital media use and their association with personality traits.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Scrolling, Chatting, and Posting: Longitudinal Changes in Distinct Social Media Behaviors and Their Relationship With Psychological Distress and Mental Wellbeing in Adolescents.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Development and validation of the digital well-being scale using university students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Effects of problematic social media use on depressive symptoms.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Profiling Teen Social Networking Sites Users: Developmental, Identity, and Psychological Issues.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Article
- Social media use, gaming and quality of life among adolescents in Norway: results from the Young-HUNT study.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Article
- Perceived Digital Well-Being Scale in the United States and United Kingdom: Psychometric Validation Study.JMIR mental health · 2025Article
- Adolescents' perceptions of using likes, comments, and other reactions-A qualitative investigation.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Social media use, risk behavior engagement, and mental health among middle adolescents in the Caribbean.BMC public health · 2025Article
- An Investigation of the Longitudinal Bidirectional Associations Between Interactive Versus Passive Social Media Behaviors and Youth Internalizing Difficulties. A Within-Person Approach.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2025Article
- Time Spent on Social Media and Associations with Mental Health in Young Adults: Examining TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, and Reddit.Journal of technology in behavioral science · 2025Article
- The Protective Role of Social Inclusion: Loneliness as a Mediator Between Excessive Internet Use and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents.Psychology research and behavior management · 2025Article
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 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrevious research on the relationship between social media use and well-being in adolescents has yielded inconsistent results. We addressed this issue by examining the association between various digital media activities, including a new and differentiated measure of social media use, and well-being (internalizing symptoms) in adolescent boys and girls.
methodThe sample was drawn from the four cross-sectional surveys from the Öckerö project (2016-2019) in eight municipalities in southern Sweden, consisting of 3957 adolescents in year 7 of compulsory education, aged 12-13. We measured the following digital media activities: playing games and three different activities of social media use (chatting, online sociability, and self-presentation). Our outcome measure was internalizing symptoms. Hypotheses were tested with linear regression analysis.
resultsSocial media use and playing games were positively associated with internalizing symptoms. The effect of social media use was conditional on gender, indicating that social media use was only associated with internalizing symptoms for girls. Of the social media activities, only chatting and self-presentation (posting information about themselves) were positively associated with internalizing symptoms. Self-presentation was associated with internalizing symptoms only for girls.
conclusionOur study shows the importance of research going beyond studying the time spent on social media to examine how different kinds of social media activities are associated with well-being. Consistent with research in psychology, our results suggest that young girls posting information about themselves (i.e. self-presentation) might be especially vulnerable to display internalizing symptoms.
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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.