Many studies have found a link between time spent using social media and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. However, the existing research is plagued by cross-sectional research and lacks analytic techniques examining individual change over time. The current research involves an 8-year longitudinal study examining the association between time spent using social media and depression and anxiety at the intraindividual level. Participants included 500 adolescents who completed once-yearly questionnaires between the ages of 13 and 20. Results revealed that increased time spent on social media was not associated with increased mental health issues across development when examined at the individual level. Hopefully these results can move the field of research beyond its past focus on screen time.

Cyberbullying perpetration continues to be a prevalent and harmful phenomenon. Despite the recent wealth of studies that examine cyberbullying frequency, further research is needed to investigate protective factors or variables that decrease the likelihood of engaging in cyberbullying perpetration. Past work has identified certain types of parenting as a potential protective factor against adolescent cyberbullying perpetration; however, there is a paucity of research testing these relations over time. This study explores parenting during early adolescence as predicting attitudes and behaviors associated with cyberbullying in late adolescence. Data were derived from the Flourishing Families Project (FFP) at Wave 2 (M age = 12) and Wave 9 (M age = 19). Results suggest that the authoritative parenting style-specifically the warmth and support dimension-was associated with less supportive attitudes toward cyberbullying and lower levels of cyberbullying in emerging adulthood. Moreover, particularly for boys, authoritarian parenting behaviors served as a risk factor for cyberbullying engagement. Suggestions are offered to advocate for greater positive parenting education during early adolescence as a potential protective factor against cyberbullying.

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