The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health in Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study of Usage Patterns and Psychological Well-Being
Downloads
Background: Social media platforms have become an integral part of the lives of young adults, with potential implications for their mental health outcomes. Understanding the relationship between social media usage patterns and psychological well-being is crucial for developing evidence-based interventions to support this population.
Objective: To examine the association between social media usage patterns and mental health outcomes in young adults aged 18-25 years, including depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and sleep quality.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 847 young adults recruited from three universities. Participants completed validated questionnaires including the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Social media usage was assessed through self-reported daily usage time, platform preferences, and behavioral patterns.
Results: Participants averaged 4.2 hours of daily social media use. Heavy users (>6 hours/day, n = 198) showed significantly higher depression scores (PHQ-9: 12.4 vs. 6.8, p < 0.001) and anxiety levels (GAD-7: 11.2 vs. 7.1, p < 0.001) compared to light users (<2 hours/day, n = 156). Passive consumption behaviors were associated with lower self-esteem scores (r = -0.34, p < 0.001), while active engagement showed weaker negative correlations (r = -0.15, p < 0.05). Sleep quality deteriorated with increased evening social media use (r = 0.42, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Excessive social media use, particularly passive consumption and evening usage, is associated with poorer mental health outcomes in young adults. These findings suggest the need for digital wellness interventions and the adoption of mindful social media usage practices.
1. Auxier B, Anderson M. Social media use in 2021. Pew Research Center. 2021 Apr 7.
2. Statista Research Department. Number of global social network users 2017-2025. Statista. 2023.
3. Primack BA, Shensa A, Sidani JE, et al. Social media use and perceived social isolation among young adults in the U.S. Am J Prev Med. 2017;53(1):1-8.
4. Arnett JJ. Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. Am Psychol. 2000;55(5):469-80.
5. Kessler RC, Berglund P, Demler O, et al. Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(6):593-602.
6. Festinger L. A theory of social comparison processes. Hum Relat. 1954;7(2):117-40.
7. Nesi J, Prinstein MJ. Using social media for social comparison and feedback-seeking: gender and popularity moderate associations with depressive symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2015;43(8):1427-38.
8. Chou HT, Edge N. "They are happier and having better lives than I am": the impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others' lives. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2012;15(2):117-21.
9. Coleman JS. Social capital in the creation of human capital. Am J Sociol. 1988;94:S95-120.
10. Burke M, Kraut R. The relationship between Facebook use and well-being depends on communication type and tie strength. J Comput Mediat Commun. 2016;21(4):265-81.
11. Shakya HB, Christakis NA. Association of Facebook use with compromised well-being: a longitudinal study. Am J Epidemiol. 2017;185(3):203-11.
12. Przybylski AK, Murayama K, DeHaan CR, Gladwell V. Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Comput Human Behav. 2013;29(4):1841-8.
13. Alt D. College students' academic motivation, media engagement, and fear of missing out. Comput Human Behav. 2015;49:111-9.
14. Blackwell D, Leaman C, Tramposch R, et al. Extraversion, neuroticism, attachment style and fear of missing out as predictors of social media use and addiction. Pers Individ Dif. 2017;116:69-72.
15. Lin LY, Sidani JE, Shensa A, et al. Association between social media use and depression among U.S. young adults. Depress Anxiety. 2016;33(4):323-31.
16. Sashittal HC, Smirnova MM, Hodges N. Mindful social media use and addiction: the role of self-concept clarity. Int J Inf Manage. 2021;61:102406.
17. Primack BA, Shensa A, Escobar-Viera CG, et al. Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: a nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Comput Human Behav. 2017;69:1-9.
18. Woods HC, Scott H. #Sleepyteens: social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. J Adolesc. 2016;51:41-9.
19. Seabrook EM, Kern ML, Rickard NS. Social networking sites, depression, and anxiety: a systematic review. JMIR Ment Health. 2016;3(4):e50.
20. Burke M, Kraut R. Growing closer on Facebook: changes in tie strength through social network site use. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. 2014:4187-96.
21. Neira CJB, Barber BL. Social networking site use: linked to adolescents' social self-concept, self-esteem, and depressed mood. Aust J Psychol. 2014;66(1):56-64.
22. Yau JC, Reich SM. Are the qualities of adolescents' offline friendships present in digital interactions? Adolesc Res Rev. 2018;3(3):339-55.
23. Sherman LE, Payton AA, Hernandez LM, et al. The power of the like in adolescence: effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media. Psychol Sci. 2016;27(7):1027-35.
24. Haynes CA, Crosby S, Chanson C. A systematic review of social media use and mental health symptoms in adolescents. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2022;24(11):651-63.
25. Hale L, Kirschen GW, LeBourgeois MK, et al. Youth screen media habits and sleep: sleep-friendly screen behavior recommendations for clinicians, educators, and parents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2018;27(2):229-45.
26. Walker M. Why we sleep: unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. New York: Scribner; 2017.
27. Meier EP, Gray J. Facebook photo activity associated with body image disturbance in adolescent girls. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2014;17(4):199-206.
28. Dhir A, Yossatorn Y, Kaur P, Chen S. Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—a study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression. Int J Inf Manage. 2018;40:141-52.
29. Pancani L, Marinucci M, Aureli N, Riva P. Forced social isolation and mental health: a study on 1,006 Italians under COVID-19 lockdown. Front Psychol. 2021;12:663799.
30. Keles B, McCrae N, Grealish A. A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. Int J Adolesc Youth. 2020;25(1):79-93.
31. World Medical Association. World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA. 2013;310(20):2191-4.
32. Twenge JM, Martin GN. Gender differences in associations between digital media use and psychological well-being: evidence from three large datasets. J Adolesc. 2020;79:91-102.
33. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A. G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods. 2007;39(2):175-91.
34. Harris PA, Taylor R, Thielke R, et al. Research electronic data capture (REDCap)—a metadata-driven methodology and workflow process for providing translational research informatics support. J Biomed Inform. 2009;42(2):377-81.
35. Van den Eijnden RJ, Lemmens JS, Valkenburg PM. The social media disorder scale. Comput Human Behav. 2016;61:478-87.
36. Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB. The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med. 2001;16(9):606-13.
37. Spitzer RL, Kroenke K, Williams JB, Löwe B. A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1092-7.
38. Rosenberg M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1965.
39. Buysse DJ, Reynolds CF 3rd, Monk TH, et al. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Res. 1989;28(2):193-213.
40. Zimet GD, Dahlem NW, Zimet SG, Farley GK. The multidimensional scale of perceived social support. J Pers Assess. 1988;52(1):30-41.
41. Little RJ. A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. J Am Stat Assoc. 1988;83(404):1198-202.
42. Hunt MG, Marx R, Lipson C, Young J. No more FOMO: limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. J Soc Clin Psychol. 2018;37(10):751-68.
43. Hayes AF. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press; 2018.
44. Braithwaite SR, Givens J, Brown J, et al. The influence of social media on adolescent and young adult mental health. J Technol Behav Sci. 2021;6(2):186-99.
45. Coyne SM, Rogers AA, Zurcher JD, et al. Does time spent using social media impact mental health? An 8-year longitudinal study. Comput Human Behav. 2020;104:106160.
46. Löwe B, Unützer J, Callahan CM, et al. Monitoring depression treatment outcomes with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Med Care. 2004;42(12):1194-201.
47. Mascheroni G, Vincent J, Jimenez E. "Girls are addicted to likes so they post semi-nude selfies": peer mediation, normativity and the construction of identity online. Cyberpsychol. 2015;9(1):5.
48. Ellison NB, Steinfield C, Lampe C. Connection strategies: social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices. New Media Soc. 2011;13(6):873-92.
49. Escobar-Viera CG, Shensa A, Bowman ND, et al. Passive and active social media use and depressive symptoms among United States adults. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2018;21(7):437-43.
50. Nolen-Hoeksema S, Wisco BE, Lyubomirsky S. Rethinking rumination. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2008;3(5):400-24.
51. Levenson JC, Shensa A, Sidani JE, et al. The association between social media use and sleep disturbance among young adults. Prev Med. 2016;85:36-41.
52. Harvey AG. Sleep and circadian rhythms in bipolar disorder: seeking synchrony, harmony, and regulation. Am J Psychiatry. 2008;165(7):820-9.
53. Kelly Y, Zilanawala A, Booker C, Sacker A. Social media use and adolescent mental health: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. EClinicalMedicine. 2018;6:59-68.
54. Twenge JM, Cooper AB, Joiner TE, et al. Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005-2017. J Abnorm Psychol. 2019;128(3):185-99.
55. Nesi J, Miller AB, Prinstein MJ. Adolescents' depressive symptoms and subsequent technology-based interpersonal behaviors over time. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 2017;46(2):159-70.
56. Baumel A, Muench F, Edan S, Kane JM. Objective user engagement with mental health apps: systematic search and panel-based usage analysis. J Med Internet Res. 2019;21(9):e14567.
