Abstract
There is a complex relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes. To explore this complexity and understand how social media influence adolescent mental health, a two-phase, explanatory sequential mixed-method study will be conducted. Firstly, the quantitative phase will involve surveying a healthy sample of 400 adolescents attending secondary schools in the UK (n=200) and Turkey (n=200). We will use the survey to investigate the moderating effect of relational orientation in a cross-sectional study, in which participants will be selected from secondary schools in Portsmouth, United Kingdom and Kayapinar, Diyarbakir, Turkey. Secondly, the qualitative phase will involve interviewing a mixed sample of 10-12 clinical and non-clinical adolescents in London. In these interviews, we will explore key quantitative findings in more detail, for example, how and why adolescents use social media and the role of social media in the development and maintenance of mental health well-being. The strengths and limitations of the study proposal have been discussed.
 Keywords: social media, anxiety, depression, adolescents, culture, relational orientation
Highlights
The over-arching aim of this study is to explore how one aspect of culture, namely relational orientation, influences the relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes in adolescents
The clinical sample of adolescents will be recruited from a population currently receiving care from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) across England or United Kingdom (UK) and the non-clinical population will be recruited from schools in England or UK
Anticipated Results The quantitative findings from phase I are expected to show that relational orientation partly or completely moderates the relationship between social media use and mental health outcomes in adolescents
Summary
The term “social media” is a broad term which refers to the wide range of internet-based channels that allow users to create a public or semi-public online profile, communicate with others, build social networks and selectively self-present with both broad and narrow audiences (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Carr & Hayes, 2015). Any website that allows social interaction, self-expression and self-presentation is considered as social media, including social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, MySpace and Twitter, video sites such as YouTube, and blogs (O'Keeffe, Clarke-Pearson, & Council on Communications and Media, 2011). Social media have become an inseparable part of our daily social activities. The number of social media users and the time spent on social media has gradually increased since 2010.
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