Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Dec 2023)
Reexploring Problematic Social Media Use and Its Relationship with Adolescent Mental Health. Findings from the “LifeOnSoMe”-Study
Abstract
Turi Reiten Finserås,1 Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland,1,2 Børge Sivertsen,1,3 Ian Colman,4,5 Randi Træland Hella,6 Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen,1 Jens Christoffer Skogen1,2,7 1Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway; 2Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Measures, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; 3Department of Research and Innovation, Helse Fonna HF, Haugesund, Norway; 4School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada; 5Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; 6Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, NORCE, Bergen, Norway; 7Alcohol and Drug Research Western Norway, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, NorwayCorrespondence: Turi Reiten Finserås, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 973 Sentrum, Bergen, 5808, Norway, Tel +47 980 79 303, Email [email protected]: Previous approaches used to assess problematic social media use risk inflating prevalence numbers and classifying unproblematic social media use as problematic. The main aim of this study was to take an exploratory view as to how different types of activities, experiences, and motivations on social media are associated with problematic mental health outcomes in adolescents.Patients and Methods: This study is based on a cross-sectional survey of 2023 adolescents (mean age 17.4 years (SD 0.9), 44.4% males) from the year 2020. Exploratory graph analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed on 28 pre-selected items assessing adolescents’ use of social media, to identify underlying potentially problematic factors associated with social media use. Sets of gender-adjusted multiple linear regression analyses were performed to assess the degree to which social media factors predicted depression, anxiety, well-being, and time spent on social media.Results: Three factors were identified: 1) “subjective overuse”, 2) “social obligations”, and 3) “source of concern”. All three factors showed significant positive associations with mental health problems. The factor “source of concern”, which identifies feelings of being overwhelmed and concerned over social media use, had the strongest association to mental health problems and simultaneously the weakest association to time spent on social media.Conclusion: Three identified factors measuring problematic social media use showed positive associations with mental health problems. This lends support to the notion that problematic social media use is a multidimensional phenomenon and demonstrates the need to move beyond addiction criteria when assessing problematic social media use.Keywords: social networking, youth, depression, anxiety, well-being
