Intense and problematic social media use and sleep difficulties of adolescents in 40 countries

Asaduzzaman Khan; George Thomas; Shamshad Karatela; Alina Morawska; Aliza Werner-Seidler

doi:10.1002/jad.12321

Intense and problematic social media use and sleep difficulties of adolescents in 40 countries

J Adolesc. 2024 Apr 3. doi: 10.1002/jad.12321. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Asaduzzaman Khan¹, George Thomas², Shamshad Karatela³, Alina Morawska⁴, Aliza Werner-Seidler⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
² Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
³ School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
⁴ Parenting and Family Support Centre, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
⁵ Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

PMID: 38570320
DOI: 10.1002/jad.12321

Abstract

Introduction: Social media has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life; however, evidence suggests patterns of social media use can affect sleep health in children and adolescents. This study aimed to examine the associations of intense and problematic social media use (SMU) with sleep-onset difficulties in adolescence.

Methods: We analysed data from 212,613 adolescents aged 11-15 years (51.1% girls) from 40 European and North American countries that participated in the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. Intense SMU assessed how often respondents had online contact through social media, and problematic SMU was assessed by symptoms of addiction to social media. Sleep-onset difficulties were assessed using a self-reported item. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression was used to obtain the estimates.

Results: Sleep-onset difficulties were more common among girls than boys (27.1% vs 20.8%). Intense SMU was significantly associated with sleep-onset difficulties in boys in 17 countries and in girls in 25 countries, while problematic SMU was significantly associated in most of the participating countries. Overall, exposure to problematic SMU alone was highly associated with sleep-onset difficulties both in girls (OR 2.20, 2.04-2.38) and boys (OR 1.88, 1.73-2.04), while the association estimates for intense SMU were smaller and comparable across gender (Girls: OR 1.27, 1.23-1.31; Boys: OR 1.22, 1.18-1.27). Sensitivity analyses supported the above findings.

Conclusions: Intense and/or problematic SMU were associated with sleep-onset difficulties across gender with associations being higher for problematic compared to intense SMU. Prospective research with objective measures is needed to understand the causal mechanisms underlying these relationships.

Keywords: HBSC; children; digital screen use; multi‐country; sleep problems.