Social media use and prospective suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents at high risk for suicide.
Open accessAbstract
Objective: To examine the relationship between social media use and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among adolescents in the first 30 days of an intensive outpatient program (IOP) for depression and suicidality. Method: Participants included 100 adolescents who enrolled in an IOP for depression and suicidality and completed baseline measures of social media and weekly measures of depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors at clinical visits over the next month. Results: Lower levels of social media use (overall and messaging) were associated with a greater likelihood of having suicidal ideation with plan over the next 30 days. There was no effect on suicidal behavior. Multilevel modeling indicated no main effects of social media use on depression or average days of suicidal thoughts. However, individuals with lower levels of social media use maintained more depression symptoms and days with passive death wish across the first month of treatment. Conclusions: Among adolescents at high risk for suicide, less engagement in social media may reflect social anhedonia or withdrawal, which may heighten risk for more severe suicidal ideation or impede initial treatment. Findings highlight the importance of considering social media as an additional context when assessing social dysfunction in treatment for depression and suicidality.
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From Social Media Use and Internalizing Symptoms in Clinical and Community Adolescent Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
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From Social Media Use and Internalizing Symptoms in Clinical and Community Adolescent Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
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- Authors
- Hamilton, J. L., Biernesser, C., Moreno, M. A., Porta, G., Hamilton, E., Johnson, K., Poling, K. D., Sakolsky, D., Brent, D. A., & Goldstein, T. G.
- Affiliations
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Department of Psychiatry University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pittsburgh Pennsylvania USA
- Corresponding author
- Hamilton, Jessica L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-09-17
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1203-1212
- ISSN
- 0363-0234 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-278X
- PMC
- PMC8729160
- OpenAlex
- W3201042575
- Semantic Scholar
- b883a4719fd207ec5cc7ea13302ebb55e0f8a978
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH121584, L30MH117642, T32MH018951)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Keywords
- social media use, suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, adolescents, depression, intensive outpatient treatment, suicide risk, social anhedonia, social withdrawal, social dysfunction
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Depression, Humans, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Suicide, Suicidal Ideation, Social Media
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