The Longitudinal Association Between Social-Media Use and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: An Empirical Reply to Twenge et al. (2018)

TLDR

Twenge et al. reported a cross‑sectional association between social‑media use and depressive symptoms in adolescents, but the temporal direction of this relationship remains unclear. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the temporal associations between social‑media use and depressive symptoms. The authors followed 594 adolescents (mean age 12.21) for two years and 1,132 undergraduates (mean age 19.06) for six years, collecting annual self‑reports of social‑media use and depressive symptoms.

Abstract

Research by Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, and Martin has indicated that there may be an association between social-media use and depressive symptoms among adolescents. However, because of the cross-sectional nature of this work, the relationship among these variables over time remains unclear. Thus, in this longitudinal study we examined the associations between social-media use and depressive symptoms over time using two samples: 594 adolescents ( M age = 12.21) who were surveyed annually for 2 years, and 1,132 undergraduate students ( M age = 19.06) who were surveyed annually for 6 years. Results indicate that among both samples, social-media use did not predict depressive symptoms over time for males or females. However, greater depressive symptoms predicted more frequent social-media use only among adolescent girls. Thus, while it is often assumed that social-media use may lead to depressive symptoms, our results indicate that this assumption may be unwarranted.