• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: The Longitudinal Association Between Social-Media Use and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: An Empirical Reply to Twenge et al. (2018)
  • Beteiligte: Heffer, Taylor; Good, Marie; Daly, Owen; MacDonell, Elliott; Willoughby, Teena
  • Erschienen: SAGE Publications, 2019
  • Erschienen in: Clinical Psychological Science, 7 (2019) 3, Seite 462-470
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1177/2167702618812727
  • ISSN: 2167-7026; 2167-7034
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  • Beschreibung: 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 ( Mage = 12.21) who were surveyed annually for 2 years, and 1,132 undergraduate students ( Mage = 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.