ArticleComputers in human behavior2023
Social media behaviors and symptoms of anxiety and depression. A four-wave cohort study from age 10-16 years.
Article in Computers in human behavior, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Social Media Use and Internalizing Symptoms in Clinical and Community Adolescent Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JAMA pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- Development and evaluation of a digital single-session reappraisal intervention to shift negative self-focused social media interpretations.Behaviour research and therapy · 2026Trial
- Mental health, quality of life and mental health service use after the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from a cross-sectional nationwide study among German children and adolescents.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Relations Between Social Media Use and Cyberbullying Victimization Across Adolescence: Within-Person Effects in a Birth Cohort.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Characterizing Adolescent Social Media Experiences and Links to Momentary Affect.Journal of adolescence · 2025Article
- The Association Between Frequency of Social Media Use, Wellbeing, and Depressive Symptoms: Disentangling Genetic and Environmental Factors.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- Positive and Negative Experiences of Social Media Use in Early Adolescents with Social Anxiety.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Within-Person Fluctuations in Objective Smartphone Use and Emotional Processes During Adolescence: An Intensive Longitudinal Study.Affective science · 2024Article
- Bidirectional Associations of Adolescents' Momentary Social Media Use and Negative Emotions.Affective science · 2024Article
- Mental health status and quality of life among Thai people after the COVID-19 outbreak: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Observational
- From "online brains" to "online lives": understanding the individualized impacts of Internet use across psychological, cognitive and social dimensions.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2024Article
- The Role of Social Media Use and Associated Risk and Protective Behaviors on Depression in Youth Adults: A Longitudinal and Network Perspective.International journal of mental health and addiction · 2024Article
- Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Concerns have been raised that social media use causes mental health problems in adolescents, but findings are mixed, and effects are typically small. The present inquiry is the first to measure diagnostically-defined symptoms of depression and anxiety, examining whether changes in social media behavior predict changes in levels of symptoms from age 10 to 16, and vice versa. We differentiate between activity related to one's own vs. others' social media content or pages (i.e., self-oriented: posting updates, photos vs other-oriented: liking, commenting). Methods: A birth-cohort of Norwegian children was interviewed about their social media at ages 10, 12, 14 and 16 years ( Results: Within-person changes in self- and other oriented social media behavior were unrelated to within-person changes in symptoms of depression or anxiety two years later, and vice versa. This null finding was evident across all timepoints and for both sexes. Conclusions: The frequency of posting, liking, and commenting is unrelated to future symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is true also when gold standard measures of depression and anxiety are applied.
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Registered trials
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