Social Media Use and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Adolescents: Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background Using social media is a time-consuming activity of children and adolescents. Health authorities have warned that excessive use of social media can negatively affect adolescent social, physical, and psychological health. However, scientific findings regarding associations between time spent on social media and adolescent health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are not consistent. Adolescents typically use multiple social media platforms. Whether the use of multiple social media platforms impacts adolescent health is unclear. Objective The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social media use, including the number of social media platforms used and time spent on social media, and adolescent HRQoL. Methods We analyzed the data of 3397 children (mean age 13.5, SD 0.4 years) from the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort study in the Netherlands. Children reported the number of social media platforms used and time spent on social media during weekdays and weekends separately. Children’s HRQoL was self-reported with the EuroQol 5-dimension questionnaire–youth version. Data on social media use and HRQoL were collected from 2015 to 2019. Multiple logistic and linear regressions were applied. Results In this study, 72.6% (2466/3397) of the children used 3 or more social media platforms, and 37.7% (1234/3276) and 58.3% (1911/3277) of the children used social media at least 2 hours per day during weekdays and weekends, respectively. Children using more social media platforms (7 or more platforms) had a higher odds of reporting having some or a lot of problems on “having pain or discomfort” (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.99) and “feeling worried, sad or unhappy” (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.52 to 2.60) dimensions and reported lower self-rated health (β –3.81, 95% CI –5.54 to –2.09) compared with children who used 0 to 2 social media platforms. Both on weekdays and weekends, children spent more time on social media were more likely to report having some or a lot of problems on “doing usual activities,” “having pain or discomfort,” “feeling worried, sad or unhappy,” and report lower self-rated health (all P<.001). Conclusions Our findings indicate that using more social media platforms and spending more time on social media were significantly related to lower HRQoL. We recommend future research to study the pathway between social media use and HRQoL among adolescents.

Sleep Quality and Self-Stigma Mediate the Association Between Problematic Use of Social Media and Quality of Life Among People With Schizophrenia in Taiwan: A Longitudinal Study

“…Unlike previous studies that have reported significant associations between PUSM and QoL in general populations, particularly among youth, 19,72 we did not observe significant direct associations between these two domains in our sample. Several possibilities exist.…”

“…Finally, demograph- ic characteristics of our sample differ from several previous studies. 19,72 While those focused on the adolescents and young adult populations, our sample included people with an average age of 40 years, and age should be considered as possibly modifying effects of PUSM on QoL. As we found, there were significant associations between PUSM (as the independent variable) and self-stigma and sleep quality (as mediators).…”

The evolving role of social media in enhancing quality of life: a global perspective across 10 countries

“…It is essential to foster research that highlights cultural nuances to optimize social media’s role in enhancing QoL universally. A study conducted among adolescents in the Netherlands reported decreased HRQoL with the longer use of social media [ 10 ]. Particularly, the excessive or inappropriate use of social media is reported to cause more anxiety-like mental health-related problems (stress, anxiety and depression) than minimizing it [ 11 , 12 ].…”

Lonely and scrolling during the COVID-19 pandemic: understanding the problematic social media use and mental health link among university students

“…For example, associations between depression and anxiety and use of multiple social media platforms remain strong even after controlling for time spent on social media ( 22 ). Using multiple social media platforms is a possible indicator of intensity of use as it has been frequently associated with negative mental health outcomes ( 23 , 24 ). In addition, time spent on social media only weakly correlates with mental health symptoms, whereas problematic use may represent a more detrimental pattern of social media use ( 25 , 26 ).…”