Research links kids' social media use and depression

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll tell you about a study which now points to a connection between social media and depression in kids. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hyndman. Is social media making kids depressed ? Well , it's a question that's been top of mind for a lot of families in recent years , but getting a clear answer to that question based on science has proved complicated , and it's led to many calls for long term research to better understand the connection between social media use and youth mental health. While new research is now looking into that question and has found a connection between adolescent social media use and depression. Pediatrician and researcher doctor Jason Nagata from UC San Francisco talked to Midday Edition's Andrew Bracken about the new findings.

S2: So tell us more about this research.

S3: And most studies have been at one single time point , so they're not really able to answer the causality like chicken or the egg. So we use data from a long term study called the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study , which has followed 12,009 year olds for four years every single year. And so with this new study , we're able to get a little bit better evidence in terms of the time ordering which precedes the other. And we did overall find that higher social media use did predict later depressive symptoms and not vice versa. Not that depression predicted future social media use. And I think one of the strengths of this study is that we followed the same nine year olds every single year for four years. So we also were able to see trends within an individual as well as population level trends across over 10,000 kids.

S2: You mentioned that sort of chicken and egg problem with the research and finding that connection. You know , we've heard so much , whether it's from state government , you know , federal government , parents , a lot of social researchers on mental illness , and it's , you know , connection to these technologies a lot of young people are using. Talk more about what makes this particular research study significant. I think you mentioned this longitudinal study versus a cross-sectional.

S3: So say we're doing a survey of teenagers and we asked them in 2025 , you know , what's your social media use and what are your depressive symptoms ? But if we only have it at one , all that data at one time point , we can't necessarily say which one came first , which one was more of a risk factor for the other. But in this current study , we followed the same children year after year for in this study we had data from four different years , but the study is actually ongoing. So eventually we'll follow them for over ten years. And with that data we could actually see sort of trends in an individual child. So we were able to look at analyses that followed the like an individual over time and found that an individual's rise in social media. So like if I last year reported only ten minutes of social media use , but then all of a sudden this year I'm reporting 60 minutes of social media use. A big rise in social media use in an individual was then associated with subsequent depressive symptoms a year and two years later. So we were able to look a little bit more at that time. Ordering. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. I mean , tell us more about what you find and what the kind of main takeaways of this study are.

S3: I do think that one of the main takeaways is that , you know , social media isn't inherently good or bad. There are some risks , and I think one of the risks that we've identified here is depression. We do have actually two studies , the sort of sister study that goes along with this points to actually experiencing cyberbullying. So 10% of these nine , ten year olds reported that they had experienced cyberbullying through social media. And that in particular was a risk factor , or potentially one of the explanations for how social media can lead to higher depressive symptoms. Actually , unfortunately , in these kids , we found that those who had experienced cyberbullying were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt the following year. So I do think that , you know , online bullying is in some ways similar to in-person bullying and that it can have some significant mental health consequences. But online bullying also can be different because in some ways it's anonymous. Sometimes people are bullying you with fake or online accounts , so you don't actually know who the person is. And there is not great age verification. And so it could be an adult that could be somebody from across the country , it could be somebody from across the world. And you may not ever interact with them , you know , in real life , but there can still be , you know , traumatic bullying that can lead to poor mental health. So I do think that experiencing cyber bullying in particular , could be one of the linkages to depression. And for parents and teens , as much as you are able to enhance your privacy and security settings to like , you know , not allow anonymous accounts to interact with you , especially for younger children , you know , that can be helpful in general , just trying to limit to hateful content blocking accounts as needed. And , you know , reporting accounts that are also promoting hateful content.

S2: Kind of as you mentioned there , cyberbullying covers a lot of different ground. Did you get any indication in your research as to what types of cyberbullying were happening ? Most frequently.

S3: Unfortunately , with the data that we have right now and this study , we were only we just asked the kids like if they had experienced cyber bullying in the past 12 months , and we didn't get into the details of what types of interactions they were. Um , but I do think that that's definitely an area of future research. But we do know that if a kid reported that they had been cyber bullied , you know , that was associated with more risk of depression , suicide and even substance use , uh , in the following year. But I do think that definitely , as you're saying , you know , content and context matters. So I do think that that's an area definitely to explore more.

S2: You just mentioned there , you know , the connection to the potential for future substance abuse.

S3: So these were 11 and 12 year olds. If they had experienced being a victim of cyberbullying , they were 2.3 times more likely to experiment with a substance that next year , and that was including marijuana , tobacco and alcohol. And actually marijuana had the highest risk. So they were almost five times as likely to experiment with marijuana the following year. Three times more likely to experiment with tobacco and twice as likely to experiment with alcohol. Potentially these young kids , you know , if they're experiencing bullying or traumatic event , they may turn to substances as a way of coping with some of these issues. You know , again , we don't know the exact details of the content of the bullying , but it just to say that it does seem like it is associated with , you know , poor mental health. And then potentially kids are turning to substances to try to cope with these issues.

S2: We're turning back to the social media piece. When we think of social media , you know that landscape changes every few years. Can you talk about specifically what social media use looked like in this study.

S3: That social media use in the Adolescent brain and cognitive development study was actually measured in multiple ways. First , people were just asked in general how much time they spent on social media. They were asked about specific apps that they used. Their parents were also asked about their social media use. So we have , you know , both the child's report and the parents report. And towards the end of the study , at the four year mark , if kids actually had a smartphone and they were willing to enroll in this part of the study , then there was an app that actually measured objectively , kind of like the screen time app , like how much time they were spending on each app. So there was also like a more objective measure , not just based on their their report.

S2:

S3: TikTok was the most commonly used by the adolescents , followed by Snapchat , Instagram. And I will say that one of the I think challenges in social media research is that there's always new apps , there's always new features , and so there's always , you know , new exposures and ways that teens are using and engaging with social media in very different ways. So it's definitely an ongoing thing. But I think one thing to note , actually , is that the study started when these kids were nine years old , and from 9 to 13 , the average social media use increased from seven minutes a day to over 70 minutes a day. So there was over a ten times increase in social media use in these pre-teens. Another I think important thing to note is technically , the minimum age requirement for social media apps is 13 years. So almost the entire study represented underage use. So all these kids who were using it , which was over two thirds of 11 and 12 year olds , basically had social media accounts in which they had to put in a fake date of birth to be eligible to start an app. And on average , these 11 to 12 year olds had more than three different accounts. Again , mostly representing underage use. So I think one other thing that perhaps is not surprising to anyone is that , you know , there's not really great robust age verification. Kids can just put in whatever date of birth and make fake accounts.

S2: And I think Instagram has recently made announcements that they're looking to change that with their verifying the teen accounts. But yeah , that was something that jumped out to me was that , you know , we kind of think of the minimum age of using social media being 13 , but in reality , that's just not really the case is what you're kind of research is proving out here. Yeah.

S3: Yeah. Traditionally it's been very easy for people to , yeah , just enter whatever date of birth and then get access to accounts. And at least during the course of this study , which was 2016 through the present , that seems to have been the case. I do think that there are federal and state legislation that are trying to think about how to make more robust age verification , and I know that some of the tech companies , as you mentioned , like Instagram , are trying to improve their technology to to do that. But it does seem like , at least even in the recent past , there are many underage users.

S2: You mentioned this. You know , research kind of started with these kids at nine kind of going into , you know , 13 years of age.

S3: We do know that in general , teenagers or , you know , growing children who are transitioning into their teenage years , who are then transitioning to becoming adults , you know , do have very unique considerations , even from adults in general. You know , teens are undergoing lots of developmental changes like puberty , increased body image concerns , and a more focus on peer relationships. They're also trying to become more independent. You know , they're you know , children are more dependent. Teenagers are trying to be more independent. But , you know , social media does have really powerful algorithms that deliver content that's very engaging , visual and interactive. And teens in particular are susceptible to these elements of addiction for social media. I will say that to some extent , the notifications and algorithms make many social media platforms addictive to anyone , including adults. But I do think that because teens are really concerned about their peers and their image with among their peers , they are at particular risk.

S2: You've touched on this a little bit , but I want to kind of go back to it and really stamp this home.

S3: And so that involves having regular conversations as a household that acknowledges , you know , the age of your children , what devices are in the household , and then trying to make an individualized plan that you know , everyone can agree on. And so some components of that plan could include screen free times. For instance , right before bedtime is a good time to try to limit screen use because we know that most teens don't get enough sleep anyway. And the more screens they use right before bedtime. You know , that detracts from their getting a good , restful night's sleep , and then that can lead to higher risk of mental health problems and just poor attention at school the next day. Another time to consider limiting screen use could be like around dinnertime or around family meals. That could encourage , you know , in-person connection and communication and just checking in with that with other family members. It also may lead to more healthful nutrition choices. We actually know that when people are eating and they're distracted in front of screens , they're more likely to overeat even in the absence of hunger. So if you're watching TV while you're eating dinner and you're kind of just paying attention to the program , you may be more prone to overeating even if you aren't hungry just because you're eating kind of absentmindedly and , you know , having conversations with your children and checking in with them and knowing what what issues are coming up at school.

S1: That was pediatrician and researcher doctor Jason Nagata from UC San Francisco , speaking with midday producer Andrew Bracken.