Associations Between Social Media Use and Anxiety Among Adolescents: A Systematic Review Study

Studies show mixed associations between adolescent social media use and anxiety. This systematic review evaluated research on social media and anxiety among adolescents for direction of associations, social media measures, demographic stratification, anxiety measures, and study quality.

We searched for articles published in English before 2021 that tested associations between adolescent social media use and anxiety. Each study underwent screening and data extraction by two reviewers. Measures included direction of associations (positive, negative, null, mixed), social media measures, demographic group stratification, anxiety measures, and study quality (Strengthening of Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology).

A total of 32 studies were included. Over half reported positive associations between social media use and anxiety (56.3%). Problematic use was the most common social media measure type (31.4%). Positive associations with anxiety were predominantly observed for measures of problematic use (75.0%) and screen time (72.7%). Among other social media measures, 40.9% showed positive associations. A total of 18 anxiety measures were used. Four studies (12.5%) stratified findings by gender identity. The mean Strengthening of Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology score was 34.1 (standard deviation = 4.3) out of 46.

Future work should explore accurate social media use measures that are not based on problematic use.