Individual Patterns in the Association Between Social Media Use and Adolescent Well-being
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Research on the association between social media use and adolescent well-being is increasingly adopting an individualized paradigm, focusing on within-person associations. We provide a more holistic examination of the individualized nature of the effects of social media on adolescent well-being than previously demonstrated by using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data from 99 adolescents living in the United States to (1) show the between- and within-person variability in social media harms and benefits related to eight dimensions of well-being and (2) create individualized models of adolescent well-being using fifteen features of adolescents’ social media use. Overall, we found considerable nuance and variability when examining the interplay between social media use and well-being at an individual level, illustrating how social media both harms and benefits well-being, as well as highlighting the challenges an individualized approach to social media and well-being poses to researchers working towards building a generalizable understanding of this phenomenon.
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4415651987