#ConnectedTeens: Social media use and adolescent wellbeing

Abstract

As there are great societal concerns about the consequences of adolescents’ social media use, this dissertation investigated the relation between adolescents’ social media use and wellbeing. We used longitudinal data from Dutch adolescents participating in the Digital Youth Project between 2015 and 2019, as well as (inter)nationally representative cross-sectional data from adolescents participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study in 2017/2018. In our research, we distinguished between the intensity of social media use and problematic social media use. The intensity of social media use was indicated by, for example, how many times per day someone views social network sites. Problematic social media use was characterized by symptoms of addiction to social media use, such as loss of control over social media use. Results indicated that this distinction is important. First, many adolescents engage in intensive social media use without developing problematic social media use. Second, problematic social media use seems to contribute to lower wellbeing, such as decreased life satisfaction and increased attention problems, while higher intensity of social media use in general does not. Third, in contrast to problematic social media use, we found indications that higher intensity of social media use is beneficial for adolescents’ wellbeing, as our results showed that intensive users of social media perceived more friend support than non-intensive users. These findings inform professionals concerned with the wellbeing of youth that mainly problematic social media use is harmful, while higher intensity of social media use is often not. Given the potential detrimental nature of problematic social media use, prevention and intervention programs on (reducing) problematic social media use are warranted.