Is social media screen time really associated with poor adolescent mental health? A time use diary study
Open accessAbstract
Background There is increasing concern regarding the potential impact of social media use on the mental health of young people. Previous research has relied heavily on retrospective accounts of social media screen-time. Yet recent evidence suggests that such self-report measures are unreliable, correlating poorly with more objective measures of social media use. In principle, time use diaries provide a less biased measure of social media use. Methods We analysed cross-sectional data from the Millennium Cohort Study to explore associations between social media screen-time as recorded in time use diaries (TUD) and key mental health outcomes - self-harm in the past year, depressive symptoms (Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire), self-esteem (shortened Rosenberg scale) - in adolescence. Social media TUD data were available for 4,032 participants (25.4% aged 13; 73.5% aged 14; 1.1% aged 15). Results Following adjustment for confounders, a greater amount of time spent on social media was associated with an increased risk of self-harm (adjusted OR per 30-minute increase in weekday use: 1.13, 95%CI 1.06 to 1.21) and depression (adjusted B ==0.36, 95%CI 0.22 to 0.50) and lower levels of self-esteem (adjusted B = -0.12, 95%CI -0.20 to -0.04) in females. Findings were similar for weekday and weekend use. Limitations The cross-sectional nature of the data limits inference in relation to the causal direction of these associations. Conclusions Future research should examine the direction of the associations with self-harm and other mental health outcomes and explore gender differences in how adolescents engage with social media as well as how much time they spend online.
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Social media's impact on mental health tends to be more pronounced in females.
“research focusing on adolescence reveals that social media’s impact on mental health tends to be more pronounced in females (Barthorpe et al., 2020; Kelly et al., 2019; Twenge et al., 2022).”
From The associations between social comparison on social media and young adults’ mental health (2025) · cites this paper as Barthorpe et al., 2020
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- Authors
- Barthorpe, A., Winstone, L., Mars, B., & Moran, P.
- Affiliations
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Winstone, Lizzy
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-09
- Volume
- 274
- Pages
- 864-870
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3029678251
- Cited by
- 158
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 19.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Explore Bristol Research (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (PD‐SPH‐2015)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Keywords
- social media use, screen time, adolescent mental health, self-harm, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, time diaries, self-report reliability, gender differences, Millennium Cohort Study
- MeSH terms
- Screen Time, Adolescent, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Humans, Mental Health, Retrospective Studies, Self Concept, Cohort Studies, Social Media
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