Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Holly Shannon; Katie Bush; Paul J Villeneuve; Kim GC Hellemans; Synthia Guimond

doi:10.2196/33450

journal article Apr 14, 2022

Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Holly Shannon

Katie Bush

Paul J Villeneuve

Kim GC Hellemans Synthia Guimond

JMIR Mental Health Vol. 9 No. 4 pp. e33450 · JMIR Publications Inc.

View at Publisher Save 10.2196/33450

Abstract

Background
Technology is ever evolving, with more and more diverse activities becoming possible on screen-based devices. However, participating in a heavy screen-based lifestyle may come at a cost. Our hypothesis was that problematic social media use increased the prevalence of mental health outcomes.

Objective
This study seeks to systematically examine problematic social media use in youth and its association with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.

Methods
A systematic search was conducted to identify studies in adolescents and young adults, using the databases Engineering Village, Psycinfo, Pubmed, and Web of Science. A total of 18 studies were identified, with a total of 9269 participants in our review and included in the meta-analysis.

Results
Our metaregression shows moderate but statistically significant correlations between problematic social media use and depression (r=0.273, P<.001), anxiety (r=0.348, P<.001), and stress (r=0.313, P<.001). We did not find evidence of heterogeneity of these summary correlations by age, gender, or year of publication.

Conclusions
This study provides further evidence of the association between problematic social media use and negative mental health among adolescents and young adults and supports future research to focus on the underlying mechanisms of problematic use of social media.

Trial Registration
PROSPERO CRD42021222309; https://tinyurl.com/2p9y4bjx

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Details

Published: Apr 14, 2022
Vol/Issue: 9(4)
Pages: e33450

Authors

H

Holly Shannon

Department of Neuroscience Carleton University Ottawa Ontario Canada; University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal Ottawa Ontario Canada

Cite This Article

Holly Shannon, Katie Bush, Paul J Villeneuve, et al. (2022). Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JMIR Mental Health, 9(4), e33450. https://doi.org/10.2196/33450

Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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