Which social media platforms matter and for whom? Examining moderators of links between adolescents' social media use and depressive symptoms
Open accessAbstract
Introduction: Despite extensive research on social media and risks for mental health, not enough is known about individual differences in these risks. Methods: The present study, with data collected from 2018 to 2020, investigated the association between social media use (total and for specific platforms) and depressive symptoms in a sample of 237 American adolescents ( M age = 15.10; SD = 0.49; 51.1% girls and 48.5% boys). We investigated several moderators: gender, self‐esteem, personality, and negative reactions to social media. Covariates were gender, timing of the follow‐up (pre vs. during the pandemic), and depressive symptoms a year earlier. Results: Results indicated that greater total time spent on social media was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. This effect held for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (but not Snapchat, Facebook, or Twitter). Several moderated effects were found. Twitter was associated with more depressive symptoms for girls but not boys. More frequent Instagram use was linked to more depressive symptoms for less or average‐level extraverted teens but not for more extraverted teens, suggesting extraversion may be protective. More frequent TikTok use was associated with more depressive symptoms, particularly for teens who said they have more or average‐level negative reactions to social media a year earlier. Conclusions: This study suggests that certain adolescents may be at increased risk for serious mental health challenges, like elevated depressive symptoms, when using TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter more frequently, underscoring the importance of examining individual differences and particular social media platforms.
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Among included studies, only four reported data about total daily screen time, and four detailed the amount of time spent on TikTok.
“Among the included studies, only four reported data about total daily screen time [67–70], and four detailed the amount the time spent on TikTok [42, 67, 71, 72].”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
Eleven studies used self-developed questionnaires for outcome evaluation, of which only six paired it with standardized measures.
“Eleven studies used self-developed questionnaires for outcome evaluation [42, 67–72, 74, 80–82], of which only six paired it with standardized measures [67–69, 71, 72, 80, 81].”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
Four of the included studies assessed wellbeing indicators, like creativity, innovation, life satisfaction, and health habits, while sixteen assessed mental disorder indicators such as depression, anxiety, stress or body image issues.
“Four of the studies [68, 75, 79, 80] assessed wellbeing indicators, like creativity, innovation, life satisfaction, and health habits, while sixteen assessed mental disorder indicators such as depression, anxiety, stress or body image issues [42, 67, 68, 70–73, 76–79, 81–85].”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
Gentzler et al. highlighted that less extroverted teens and those most prone to negative reactions reported elevated depressive symptoms when using TikTok.
“Gentzler et al. [71] highlighted that less extroverted teens and those most prone to negative reactions reported elevated depressive symptoms when using TikTok.”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
Most of the review's studies reported negative effects of food-, diet- or weight-related contents on body image, increasing in users the perceived importance of their physical appearance to others.
“most of the review’s studies reported negative effects of food-, diet- or weight-related contents on body image [42, 71], increasing in users the perceived importance of their physical appearance to others [80].”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
Introverted teens who use TikTok and show more negative emotional arousal to its contents are at risk of developing higher depressive symptoms after one year of use.
“Further, introverted teens who use TikTok and show more negative emotional arousal to its contents, are at risk of developing higher depressive symptoms after one year of use [71].”
From Scrolling through adolescence: a systematic review of the impact of TikTok on adolescent mental health (2025) · cites this paper as [71]
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- Authors
- Gentzler, A. L., Hughes, J. L., Johnston, M., & Alderson, J. E.
- Affiliations
- West Virginia University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Adolescence
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2023-09-12
- Volume
- 95
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1725-1748
- ISSN
- 0140-1971 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9254
- PMC
- PMC10841255
- OpenAlex
- W4386623891
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 97
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6
- FWCI
- 14.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Adolescence (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (NICHD R15 HD078920‐01)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- social media use, depressive symptoms, adolescents, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, self-esteem, extraversion, gender differences, COVID-19 pandemic, individual differences, mental health risk
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Self Concept, Social Media
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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