Reexploring Problematic Social Media Use and Its Relationship with Adolescent Mental Health. Findings from the "LifeOnSoMe"-Study

Turi Reiten Finserås; Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland; Børge Sivertsen; Ian Colman; Randi Træland Hella; Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen; Jens Christoffer Skogen

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S435578

Reexploring Problematic Social Media Use and Its Relationship with Adolescent Mental Health. Findings from the "LifeOnSoMe"-Study

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Dec 20:16:5101-5111. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S435578. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Turi Reiten Finserås¹, Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland^{1

2}, Børge Sivertsen^{1

3}, Ian Colman^{4

5}, Randi Træland Hella⁶, Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen¹, Jens Christoffer Skogen^{1

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
² Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Measures, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
³ Department of Research and Innovation, Helse Fonna HF, Haugesund, Norway.
⁴ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁵ Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁶ Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, NORCE, Bergen, Norway.
⁷ Alcohol and Drug Research Western Norway, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway.

Abstract

Purpose: 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: anxiety; depression; social networking; well-being; youth.

Grants and funding

The work of TRF, AIOA and JCS was supported by The Research Council of Norway [grant number 319845] while the work of GJH was supported by Dam Foundation [grant number 2021/FO347287]. The funding sources were not involved in the study design, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, or in writing the manuscript.