Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health

Pagliaccio, David; Tran, Kate T.; Visoki, Elina; DiDomenico, Grace E.; Auerbach, Randy P.; Barzilay, Ran

doi:10.1038/s44277-024-00006-9

Cited by 23Impact of Technology on AdolescentsChild Development and Digital TechnologyChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health

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Pagliaccio, David, Tran, Kate T., Visoki, Elina, DiDomenico, Grace E., Auerbach, Randy P., Barzilay, Ran·2024·NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience

DOI 10.1038/s44277-024-00006-9PMC PMC11504934

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Abstract

Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory highlighting the lack of knowledge about the safety of ubiquitous social media use on adolescent mental health. For many youths, social media use can become excessive and can contribute to frequent exposure to adverse peer interactions (e.g., cyberbullying, and hate speech). Nonetheless, social media use is complex, and although there are clear challenges, it also can create critical new avenues for connection, particularly among marginalized youth. In the current project, we leverage a large nationally diverse sample of adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study assessed between 2019–2020 ( N = 10,147, M age = 12.0, 48% assigned female at birth, 20% Black, 20% Hispanic) to test the associations between specific facets of adolescent social media use (e.g., type of apps used, time spent, addictive patterns of use) and overall mental health. Specifically, a data-driven exposome-wide association was applied to generate digital exposomic risk scores that aggregate the cumulative burden of digital risk exposure. This included general usage, cyberbullying, having secret accounts, problematic/addictive use behavior, and other factors. In validation models, digital exposomic risk explained substantial variance in general child-reported psychopathology, and a history of suicide attempt, over and above sociodemographics, non-social screentime, and non-digital adversity (e.g., abuse, poverty). Furthermore, differences in digital exposomic scores also shed insight into mental health disparities, among youth of color and sexual and gender minority youth. Our work using a data-driven approach supports the notion that digital exposures, in particular social media use, contribute to the mental health burden of US adolescents.

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Social media has had outsize effects on matters such as public discourse and free speech, or mental health of young people.
“For all its positive and inclusive outcomes (110, 111), there is mounting evidence that social media has had outsize effects on matters such as public discourse and free speech (112), or mental health of young people (113–115).”
From The benefits and dangers of anthropomorphic conversational agents (2025) · cites this paper as [114]
The Results (page unavailable) associate higher digital exposomic risk with youth mental-health problems, including greater odds of a reported prior suicide attempt. But the Introduction (page unavailable) describes the broader evidence as small or mixed and says the direction of effects is uncertain. The cited paper therefore supports an association with youth mental health, not the claim that social media has had an outsize effect on it; this citation is not attached to the separate public-discourse claim. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Authors: Pagliaccio, D., Tran, K. T., Visoki, E., DiDomenico, G. E., Auerbach, R. P., & Barzilay, R.
Affiliations: New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
Corresponding author: Barzilay, Ran
ORCID: Pagliaccio, David
Tran, Kate T.
DiDomenico, Grace E.
Auerbach, Randy P.
Barzilay, Ran
Venue: NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2024-04-23
Volume: 2
Issue: 1
ISSN: 2948-1570 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1038/s44277-024-00006-9
PMC: PMC11504934
OpenAlex: W4395050854
Cited by: 23
References: 92
Citations by year: 2026: 12 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 1
FWCI: 16.50
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: gold
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (tdm)
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (vor)
Locations: NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH126181, R01 MH135488, K23 MH120437)
Tommy Fuss Fund
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords: social media use, adolescent mental health, cyberbullying, social media addiction, suicide attempts, psychopathology, youth of color, sexual and gender minority youth, mental health disparities, Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, screen time

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Probing the digital exposome: associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health

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