Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence

Patti M Valkenburg; Adrian Meier; Ine Beyens

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.017

Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence

Curr Opin Psychol. 2022 Apr:44:58-68. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.017. Epub 2021 Aug 18.

Authors

Patti M Valkenburg¹, Adrian Meier², Ine Beyens³

Affiliations

¹ Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Electronic address: p.m.valkenburg@uva.nl.
² School of Business, Economics and Society, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
³ Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

PMID: 34563980
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.017

Abstract

Literature reviews on how social media use affects adolescent mental health have accumulated at an unprecedented rate of late. Yet, a higher-level integration of the evidence is still lacking. We fill this gap with an up-to-date umbrella review, a review of reviews published between 2019 and mid-2021. Our search yielded 25 reviews: seven meta-analyses, nine systematic, and nine narrative reviews. Results showed that most reviews interpreted the associations between social media use and mental health as 'weak' or 'inconsistent,' whereas a few qualified the same associations as 'substantial' and 'deleterious.' We summarize the gaps identified in the reviews, provide an explanation for their diverging interpretations, and suggest several avenues for future research.

Keywords: Depression; Depressive symptoms; Facebook; Instagram; Meta-review; SNS; Social networking sites; Well-being.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Humans
Mental Health
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Review Literature as Topic
Social Media*
Social Networking