West Virginia University researchers study social media's impact on mental health of teens
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Most of us are attached to our cell phones, and we're constantly checking social media throughout the day.
How that impacts our mental health is different for everyone. Researchers at West Virginia University just released a new study. They found teen social media use could be linked to depressive symptoms, but it depends on their personality and the platform.
It's not out of the ordinary for teenagers to spend hours scrolling through social media. The WVU study found a few popular platforms can put some teens at higher risk for depression.
Amy Gentzler, a professor of psychology at WVU, and three graduate students, including Jacob Alderson, collected data from 237 teens between 2018 and 2020.
The researchers focused on personalities and how specific platforms could be linked to depressive symptoms more than others, like Instagram.
"Kids who are, in our study for example, very extrovert and outgoing and filled with a lot of positive affect, our study doesn't prove definitively but does show evidence that perhaps those teens if they're using Instagram rather often, that might not be as a big deal relative to a more quiet, more negative emotion based kid who is only consuming content on Instagram, not going out," said Alderson.
"Just thinking about parents or clinicians who they should be concerned about if the kids are constantly on social media and it's maybe not everyone," Gentzler said.
Researchers said in the study that TikTok was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, particularly for teenagers who said they were likely to have negative thoughts while browsing social media.
"Kids are going to be reacting differently and keeping that in mind. Is social media bad or good? It's both. It's always both, but you have to think about the child and how they are using the platform and what they're like as a kid," Gentzler said.
They hope teens will start taking note of how their favorite apps make them feel.
"Teens as well could ask themselves, how long am I on social media? What am I doing when I'm on Instagram or TikTok? How am I reacting to these things? You know having parents discuss this but also teens look within themselves and start to introspect I think is also just as important," Alderson said.
The takeaway for parents is to talk to their kids and realize that not all kids respond the same way to social media. You can see the full study here.