ArticleThe Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine2025
Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Study.
Article in The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- "The Only Place I Feel Understood": A Mixed Methods Survey of Adolescent and Caregiver Perspectives on Social Media and Parental Controls.Clinical child psychology and 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
- Cyberbullying and Problematic Internet Use as Correlates of Eating-Disorder Symptomatology and Health-Related Quality of Life in Women Under Specialized Care.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Digital behavior and anxiety in the post-pandemic era: a five-year analysis of screen time, sleep, and behavioral risk profiles.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Different Social Media Use Types, Psychological Needs, and Adolescents' Mental Health: A Panel Study.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- The Interactive Effects of eHealth Literacy and Mental Health Literacy on Social Media Addiction and Depression-Anxiety-Stress in Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Social Media Engagement and Usage Patterns, Mental Health Comorbidities, and Empathic Measures in an Italian Adolescent Sample: A Comparative Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 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
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeResearch on adolescent social media use focuses on negative mental health outcomes, with less attention on potential positive outcomes. The current study addresses this limitation by investigating associations between adolescent social media use and both psychological well-being and psychopathology.
methodsThree US-based pediatric cohort sites participating in the National Institutes of Health Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes study contributed cross-sectional survey data. Adolescents (13-18 years) self-reported the time spent and type of (active, passive) social media use, and their psychological well-being (Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System [PROMIS] Life Satisfaction and Meaning and Purpose), psychopathology (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and PROMIS Depressive Symptoms), and peer relationship quality (PROMIS Peer Relationships). We estimated associations between social media use and 4 mental health groups aligned to the dual factor model of mental health (high well-being/low psychopathology; high well-being/high psychopathology; low well-being/low psychopathology; low well-being/high psychopathology), and tested interactions with peer relationships. Models were adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and family income.
resultsParticipants (N = 963) were sociodemographically diverse (22% income ≤130% federal poverty level; 42% adolescents of color). Elastic net regressions revealed more hours using social media increased the probability of being in the high psychopathology/low well-being group; adolescents with poor peer relationships spending ≥7 hours/day on social media had the greatest risk of poor mental health. Positive peer relationships were the strongest predictor of positive mental health. DISCUSSION: Peer relationships were the most meaningful contribution to adolescent mental health, and quality of social media use had little influence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.