Adolescents' Intense and Problematic Social Media Use and Their Well-Being in 29 Countries
Boer M, van den Eijnden RJJM, Boniel-Nissim M, Wong SL, Inchley JC, Badura P, Craig WM, Gobina I, Kleszczewska D, Klanšček HJ, Stevens GWJM
The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 177 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Cross-sectional study (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- World Health Organization
- Government
- Scottish Government
- Government
- Chief Scientist Office
- University or hospital
- University of Glasgow
- University or hospital
- Universiteit Utrecht
- Government
- Ministry of Health, British Columbia
- University or hospital
- Universitetet i Bergen
- Government
- Medical Research Council
- Government
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Government
- European Regional Development Fund
- Grants
- Medical Research Council (MC_PC_17217); Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/12); Chief Scientist Office (SPHSU12); Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/12); Scottish Government (SPHSU12); Medical Research Council (MC_PC_17217); Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S004351/1); European Regional Development Fund (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_025/0007294); University of Glasgow (2017/2018); Economic and Social Research Council (ES/S004351/1)
Based on 10 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2020-05-20 · J Adolesc Health · vol. 66 · issue 6 · pp. S89–S99
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Cited
- 436 citations · more than 100% of similar papers · 62.2× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 53 works
- Access
- Open access (hybrid journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Mental Health via Writing · Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- social media use, social media addiction, youth welfare, life satisfaction, psychological complaints, family support, friend support, school satisfaction, mobile access, cross-national comparison, HBSC study
- MeSH
- humans, bayes theorem, adolescent behavior, stress, psychological, health behavior, behavior, addictive, personal satisfaction, mental health, cross-cultural comparison, quality of life, internet, adolescent, child, female, male, social media
11 authors
From NL, IL, CA, GB, CZ, LV, PL, SI
- Maartje Boer · correspondingUtrecht University
- Regina J. J. M. van den EijndenUtrecht University
- Meyran Boniel‐NissimKinneret College on the Sea of Galilee
- Suzy-Lai WongPublic Health Agency of Canada
- Jo InchleyUniversity of St Andrews; MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit; University of Glasgow
- Petr BaďuraPalacký University Olomouc
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined (1) whether intense and problematic social media use (SMU) were independently associated with adolescent well-being; (2) whether these associations varied by the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU; and (3) whether differences in the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU were related to differences in mobile Internet access.
Methods
Individual-level data came from 154,981 adolescents (meanage = 13.5) from 29 countries that participated in the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. Intense SMU was measured by the time spent on social media, whereas problematic SMU was defined by symptoms of addiction to social media. Mental (life satisfaction and psychological complaints), school (school satisfaction and perceived school pressure), and social (family support and friend support) well-being were assessed. Country-level data came from aggregated individual-level data and data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Internet access.
Results
Two-level regression analyses indicated that in countries with a lower prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported lower levels of life satisfaction and family support and more psychological complaints than nonintense users. In contrast, in countries with a higher prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported higher levels of family support and life satisfaction than nonintense users, and similar levels of psychological complaints. In all countries, intense users reported more friend support than nonintense users. The findings regarding problematic SMU were more consistent: In all countries, problematic users reported lower well-being on all domains than nonproblematic users. Observed differences in country-level prevalence rates of intense and problematic SMU could not be explained by mobile Internet access.
Conclusions
Adolescents reporting problematic SMU are particularly at risk of lower well-being. In many countries, intense SMU may be a normative adolescent behavior that contributes positively to specific domains of their well-being.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
Community trust
Loading…
How much do you trust this study's findings?
Comments
Sign in to rate, comment on or flag this study.Sign inSomething wrong here?
Flag this study if its information, labels or funding look wrong. An editor reviews every flag.
Sign in to rate, comment on or flag this study.Sign inEducational information about published research. Not medical advice, and not a recommendation to start or stop anything.