Sammendrag
Background: Concerns have been raised that social media use causes mental health problems in adolescents, but
findings are mixed, and effects are typically small. The present inquiry is the first to measure diagnosticallydefined
symptoms of depression and anxiety, examining whether changes in social media behavior predict
changes in levels of symptoms from age 10 to 16, and vice versa. We differentiate between activity related to
one’s own vs. others’ social media content or pages (i.e., self-oriented: posting updates, photos vs other-oriented:
liking, commenting).
Methods: A birth-cohort of Norwegian children was interviewed about their social media at ages 10, 12, 14 and
16 years (n = 810). Symptoms of depression, social anxiety and generalized anxiety were captured by psychiatric
interviews and data was analyzed using Random Intercept Cross-lagged Panel Modeling.
Results: Within-person changes in self- and other oriented social media behavior were unrelated to within-person
changes in symptoms of depression or anxiety two years later, and vice versa. This null finding was evident across
all timepoints and for both sexes. Conclusions: The frequency of posting, liking, and commenting is unrelated to
future symptoms of depression and anxiety. This is true also when gold standard measures of depression and
anxiety are applied.
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