Research following more than 3000 young people found that low to average social media use at ages 11 and 14 did not strongly predict mental ill health three years later, including depression and anxiety, self-harm and suicide attempts.
Complex relationship
The study provides valuable insights into the relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes, but experts say further research is needed to address the complexity of the issue.
Exploring the relationship between technology and young people’s wellbeing is complex and it must take into account other factors which influence both social media use and mental health.
Survey data
Researchers used a technique to address some of these complexities, adjusting data to consider factors such as earlier childhood mental health and family and peer relationships.
Experts used survey data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which follows young people born between 2000 and 2002 across the UK, to analyse their self-reported social media use at ages 11 and 14.
Parents and the young people themselves provided information on emotional issues and self-harm at ages 14 and 17. Suicide attempt data from participants was collected at age 17.
Testing associations
The findings showed no significant associations between using messaging or visiting social networking websites on most days at age 11 and emotional health issues, such as depression and anxiety or self-harm, at age 14.
Similarly, no significant links were found between using social media for two or more hours a day at age 14 and mental health problems and self-harm at age 17.
However, when looking at heavy social media use – defined in the study as two or more hours a day – the study found that spending more time on social media at age 14 was linked to a small but notable increase – about three per cent – of suicide attempts by age 17.
Even small increases matter, as suicide attempts are always serious, the researchers say.
Frequency of social media
The findings add to previous studies which suggested there is no substantial link between the length of time and frequency of social media use and adolescent mental health, researchers say.
The researchers caution that the study only looked at length of time and frequency of social media use. Other factors such as how the platforms are used, could still play a part.
The team intends to build upon the findings as they investigate which of these additional factors might contribute to mental health problems among teenagers.