Relations between Online Connectivity and Young Adult Well-Being

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

The impact excessive social media use has on youth health outcomes is unclear (Allen et al., 2015). Some studies point to detrimental effects for various health outcomes (Primack et al., 2013; Moreno et al., 2016), while others indicate either no relations or beneficial outcomes for youth (Best et al., 2014; Fardouly et al., 2016). Conflicting results may indicate that typical measures of social media use – usually total time spent online or on specific sites – may need to be more nuanced in order to disentangle these complicated relations. Using a nationally representative sample of US young adults, the current study explored the utility of a new, more specific measure to understand social media use in relation to youth health and well-being in a nationally representative sample of US young adults.

Data came from the four post-secondary school assessments (Waves 4-7, W1-W7) of a longitudinal cohort study that followed U.S. youth starting in 10th grade for seven years (N = 2,785). This study examined the frequency they engaged in six activities on social media sites, their average weekly hours spent online social networking, and seven health outcomes (depressive symptoms, problematic weight loss behaviors, weight misperception, physical activity, cigarette use, frequency of drunkenness, marijuana use).

Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relations between average time online, engagement in various social media activities, and health outcomes. Each model (42 in total) examined one health outcome, and included one social media activity, overall time spent online, time of measurement, and demographics (gender, race/ethnicity, family affluence) as fixed effects; a random effect was specified to account for the repeated measures. All analyses controlled for complex survey design, gender, ethnicity, and family affluence, and a false discovery rate correction was implemented to correct for multiple comparisons.
Results are displayed in Table 1. More overall time online was associated with increases in all outcomes, except physical activity. More private messaging was associated with more depressive symptoms. More frequent private messaging was related to both greater weight misperception and more weight loss behaviors. In addition, more frequent posting comments to someone’s post or picture and sharing a picture was related to more weight loss behaviors. Regarding the substance use outcomes, more frequent engagement in all six social media activities was associated with more drunkenness. More frequent private messaging, sharing and commenting on pictures was associated with more cigarette use. More frequent tweets/status updates were associated with more marijuana use. None of the social media activities were associated with physical activity.

This study found that social media activities are uniquely associated with young adult health and well-being outcomes when accounting for total time spent online. Moreover, different activities were related to different outcomes. These results indicate a need for more specific measures of social media to fully understand the health impacts of youth social media use. Future research should focus on developing measures of social media use that more explicitly assess the activities on social networking sites in which youth are engaged.

Authors

• Chelsie D. Temmen, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Katherine Maultsby, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Denise L. Haynie, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  Non-Presenting Author