ArticleDiscover mental health2026
Influence of digital social networking platforms on mental health and social media addiction.
Article in Discover mental health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The use of social media has been associated with various effects on mental health and addiction to these platforms, especially among university students. The aim of the study was to analize the impact of Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok on social media addiction and mental health, considering the mediating role of the latter. The study was conducted with a sample of 684 university students. Through Model 4 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS, direct and indirect relationships were evaluated between platform use (independent variables), mental health problems (mediating variable), and social media addiction (dependent variable). Regression analyses and bootstrapping with 10,000 samples were applied to estimate confidence intervals of indirect effects. The findings revealed Instagram and TikTok showed significant direct effects on social media addiction as well as indirect influences through mental health problems. These visually intensive platforms are associated with increases in psychological problems, which in turn contribute to higher levels of addiction. In contrast, Facebook and WhatsApp did not show significant direct or indirect effects on mental health or social media addiction. The findings highlight that platforms such as Instagram and TikTok pose significant risks to mental health and social media addiction among university students, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to mitigate these effects. On the other hand, Facebook and WhatsApp appear to have limited impact. This study fills gaps in the literature by differentiating psychological effects by platform and emphasizes the importance of considering social media design in digital well-being strategies.
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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.