ReviewClinical child psychology and psychiatry2023
Exploring adolescents' perspectives on social media and mental health and well-being - A qualitative literature review.
Review in Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 4 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
58 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Review: Social media use and adolescent mental health - an umbrella review and power analysis.Child and adolescent mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Adolescent Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Risk and Protective Factors.Journal of adolescence · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of Social Media Use on Physical, Mental, Social, and Emotional Health, Sleep Quality, Body Image, and Mood: Evidence from 21 Countries-A Systematic Literature Review with Narrative Synthesis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Not coping with stress and screen-time: mixed methods.International journal of circumpolar health · 2026Article
- Understanding mental health and help-seeking among adolescents in Europe: a focus group-based participatory study to inform preventive interventions.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Adolescents' Perspectives on Self-Regulation and Need for Change in Digital Media Use: A Focus Group Study.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Beyond screen time: rethinking social media as a developmental context for adolescent well-being.Translational pediatrics · 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
- Knowing How to Ask About Digital Culture in Youth Mental Health Care: A Co-Designed Tool.Early intervention in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Navigating the Algorithm: A Narrative Review of Social Media's Impact on Mental Health in Clinical and Non-Clinical Adolescent Populations.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and psychological well-being in adolescents: exploring networks of symptoms in 10 European countries.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- The Swedish version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale: A psychometric evaluation among adolescents.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Family Factors Associated With Excessive Online Activity Among Adolescents: A Latent Class Analysis of Cross-Sectional Data.Europe's journal of psychology · 2026Article
- Young Adults' Interactions With Food and Nutrition Content on Social Media and Implications for Intervention Design: Semistructured Interview Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Directly Observing and Characterizing Adolescents' Self-Generated Social Media Posts: Protocol for Creation and Implementation of a Cyberethnography Informed Codebook.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Association between cybervictimization and sleep quality in a national sample of U.S. young people: examining the moderating role of in-person and social media emotional support.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- How do social media use, gaming frequency, and internalizing symptoms predict each other over time in early-to-middle adolescence?Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 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
- 'Digital Insight and Agency Scale' (DIAS): A Novel Tool to Illuminate Young People's Agency in Mitigating the Negative Impact of Digital Activities on Their Mental Health.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many quantitative studies have supported the association between social media use and poorer mental health, with less known about adolescents' perspectives on social media's impact on their mental health and wellbeing. This narrative literature review aimed to explore their perspectives, focusing on adolescents aged between 13 and 17. It reviewed qualitative studies published between January 2014 and December 2020, retrieved from four databases: APA Psychinfo, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. The literature search obtained 24 research papers. Five main themes were identified: 1) Self-expression and validation, 2) Appearance comparison and body ideals, 3) Pressure to stay connected, 4) Social engagement and peer support and 5) Exposure to bullying and harmful content. This review has highlighted how social media use can contribute to poor mental health - through validation-seeking practices, fear of judgement, body comparison, addiction and cyberbullying. It also demonstrates social media's positive impact on adolescent wellbeing - through connection, support and discussion forums for those with similar diagnoses. Future research should consider adolescent views on improvements to social media, studying younger participants, and the impact of COVID-19 on social media use and its associated mental health implications.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.