TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolescents' Intense and Problematic Social Media Use and Their Well-Being in 29 Countries
AU - Boer, Maartje
AU - van den Eijnden, Regina J.J.M.
AU - Boniel-Nissim, Meyran
AU - Wong, Suzy Lai
AU - Inchley, Joanna C.
AU - Badura, Petr
AU - Craig, Wendy M.
AU - Gobina, Inese
AU - Kleszczewska, Dorota
AU - Klanšček, Helena J.
AU - Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for the researchers involved in this cross-national manuscript was provided by (1) the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University , The Netherlands; (2) the UK Medical Research Council ( MC_UU_12017/12 ); (3) the Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government ( SPHSU12 ); (4) the European Regional Development Fund -Project "Effective Use of Social Research Studies for Practice" ( CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_025/0007294 ); (5) Institute of Mother and Child Foundation , Warsaw, Poland; and (6) Ministry of Health , Slovenia. This work was also supported by the MRC Mental Health Data Pathfinder Award (reference MC_PC_17217 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - Purpose: This study examined (1) whether intense and problematic social media use (SMU) were independently associated with adolescent well-being; (2) whether these associations varied by the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU; and (3) whether differences in the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU were related to differences in mobile Internet access. Methods: Individual-level data came from 154,981 adolescents (meanage = 13.5) from 29 countries that participated in the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. Intense SMU was measured by the time spent on social media, whereas problematic SMU was defined by symptoms of addiction to social media. Mental (life satisfaction and psychological complaints), school (school satisfaction and perceived school pressure), and social (family support and friend support) well-being were assessed. Country-level data came from aggregated individual-level data and data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Internet access. Results: Two-level regression analyses indicated that in countries with a lower prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported lower levels of life satisfaction and family support and more psychological complaints than nonintense users. In contrast, in countries with a higher prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported higher levels of family support and life satisfaction than nonintense users, and similar levels of psychological complaints. In all countries, intense users reported more friend support than nonintense users. The findings regarding problematic SMU were more consistent: In all countries, problematic users reported lower well-being on all domains than nonproblematic users. Observed differences in country-level prevalence rates of intense and problematic SMU could not be explained by mobile Internet access. Conclusions: Adolescents reporting problematic SMU are particularly at risk of lower well-being. In many countries, intense SMU may be a normative adolescent behavior that contributes positively to specific domains of their well-being.
AB - Purpose: This study examined (1) whether intense and problematic social media use (SMU) were independently associated with adolescent well-being; (2) whether these associations varied by the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU; and (3) whether differences in the country-level prevalence of intense and problematic SMU were related to differences in mobile Internet access. Methods: Individual-level data came from 154,981 adolescents (meanage = 13.5) from 29 countries that participated in the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. Intense SMU was measured by the time spent on social media, whereas problematic SMU was defined by symptoms of addiction to social media. Mental (life satisfaction and psychological complaints), school (school satisfaction and perceived school pressure), and social (family support and friend support) well-being were assessed. Country-level data came from aggregated individual-level data and data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Internet access. Results: Two-level regression analyses indicated that in countries with a lower prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported lower levels of life satisfaction and family support and more psychological complaints than nonintense users. In contrast, in countries with a higher prevalence of intense SMU, intense users reported higher levels of family support and life satisfaction than nonintense users, and similar levels of psychological complaints. In all countries, intense users reported more friend support than nonintense users. The findings regarding problematic SMU were more consistent: In all countries, problematic users reported lower well-being on all domains than nonproblematic users. Observed differences in country-level prevalence rates of intense and problematic SMU could not be explained by mobile Internet access. Conclusions: Adolescents reporting problematic SMU are particularly at risk of lower well-being. In many countries, intense SMU may be a normative adolescent behavior that contributes positively to specific domains of their well-being.
KW - Adolescents
KW - Cross-national research
KW - HBSC
KW - Problematic social media use
KW - Social media use
KW - Well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084821351&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.014
DO - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.02.014
M3 - Article
C2 - 32446614
AN - SCOPUS:85084821351
SN - 1054-139X
VL - 66
SP - S89-S99
JO - Journal of Adolescent Health
JF - Journal of Adolescent Health
IS - 6
ER -
