ArticleBMC public health2025
Problematic social media use and self-rated health among Swedish adolescents: is the association moderated by family support?
Article in BMC public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Problematic Social Media Use Profiles and Adolescent Substance Use Across Countries: A Latent Class Analysis With Multilevel Models.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Symptom-level analysis of problematic social media use and its associations with health, well-being, and lifestyle in Lithuanian adolescents: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Support system networks: how support systems shape problematic social media use, mental health, and substance use in Czech adolescents.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 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
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecent studies have documented a range of adverse health outcomes associated with excessive social media use among adolescents. Fewer studies have examined potential protective factors in this context. Our study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the relationship between Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) and poor Self-Reported Health (SRH) among Swedish adolescents, while also examining the potential buffering role of family support.
methodsThe data was sourced from the 2017/18 cross-sectional Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, encompassing 3,135 students aged 11, 13, and 15 years. PSMU was measured using the Social Media Disorder Scale and categorized into three levels: low risk of PSMU, moderate risk of PSMU and having PSMU. Poor SRH was defined as a binary variable, with 'Less than good health' as the outcome category. Family support was measured using three items that quantified the level of emotional support received, categorized into an index of low, moderate, and high family support. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between PSMU and poor SRH, adjusting for age, gender, and family affluence. The potential moderating effect of family support was analyzed by including variables to test for both multiplicative and additive interaction between PSMU and family support on the risk of poor SRH.
resultsAfter adjustment for covariates, the results revealed a graded association between PSMU and poor SRH, with adolescents classified as having PSMU showing the highest odds of poor SRH, followed by those at moderate risk for PSMU. No statistically significant interaction was found on the multiplicative scale. The additive interaction analysis indicated potential trends of a buffering effect of high family support on the risk of poor SRH among adolescents with PSMU, although this was not statistically confirmed [due to small numbers in some of the cells].
conclusionsOur study revealed a significant, graded relationship between PSMU and poor SRH, highlighting the need to limit excessive social media use among adolescents to prevent health issues. The finding, that high family support may serve as a potential protective factor against poor SRH in adolescents with PSMU underscores the role of family engagement in safeguarding adolescent well-being.
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.