Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescent Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms: The Roles of Appearance-Related Social Media Consciousness and Gender
Year: 2020
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Social media use among adolescents is nearly ubiquitous and has been associated with heightened depressive symptoms, especially for girls. Increasingly, researchers are considering the role of subjective social media experiences as driving this association, rather than mere frequency of use. Key features of adolescent development (e.g., importance of peers), aspects unique to social media use (e.g., highly visual platforms), and cultural norms of gender socialization (e.g., girls value their physical appearance more), make adolescents, especially girls, vulnerable to a particular social media experience: appearance-related social media consciousness (ASMC). ASMC is the preoccupation with one’s physical attractiveness in social media photos and has been found to be cross-sectionally associated with depressive symptoms above and beyond frequency of social media use. The present study assessed this association longitudinally with a diverse sample of adolescents (Mage = 16.19, 55.8% female, 50.9% White, 24.5% Black, 28.2% Hispanic) in a high school setting in the Southeastern U.S. Analyses compared the role of ASMC as a moderator or mediator of the association between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms one year later. ASMC was associated longitudinally with increased depressive symptoms, though it did not mediate or moderate the link between time on social media and depressive symptoms in the full sample. However, among girls only, ASMC did mediate this association, suggesting that increased ASMC may help explain the link between time on social media and depressive symptoms among adolescent girls. Potential gender differences in vulnerability to highly-visual, appearance-based social media use, as well as implications for intervention, are discussed.
Author: Anne J. Maheux
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3042459044