Abstract
The primary aim of the current study was to examine longitudinal relation between problematic social media use (PSMU) and depressive symptoms in adolescent girls. Adolescent girls (n = 397) were assessed in three time points across two years. PSMU and depressive symptoms were subjectively assessed at three waves spaced 2 years apart. Latent growth models were used to test whether changes in PSMU were related to changes in depressive symptoms, and whether baseline PSMU predicted changes in depressive symptoms and vice versa. Results revealed baseline PSMU was positively associated with baseline depressive symptoms (β = 0.29, p < 0.01), and changes in PSMU were related to changes in depressive symptoms (β = 0.22, p < 0.05). In addition, baseline depressive symptoms were predictive of changes in PSMU (β = 0.23, p < 0.05), but baseline PSMU did not predict changes in depressive symptoms. These findings provide evidence of positive associations between increasing PSMU and depressive symptoms and suggest that interventions should target reduction of PSMU to prevent adolescents' mental health problems.
Highlights
Adolescence is a developmental period of heightened vulnerability for the onset of internalizing psychopathology, major depression and depressive symptoms (McLaughlin and King, 2015)
Depressive symptoms are more common in adolescent females and the presence of depressive symptoms and disorders intensively increases in girls between the ages of 13 and 15 (Gomez-Baya et al, 2017; McLaughlin and King, 2015)
We estimated a uni-dimensional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model for BSMAS. Results of these analyses indicated that the model did fit well (RMSEA = 0.06, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.95, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.93) using two-year period: September 2016 (T1) data
Summary
Adolescence is a developmental period of heightened vulnerability for the onset of internalizing psychopathology, major depression and depressive symptoms (McLaughlin and King, 2015). It is of great interest to understand why the level of girls' depressive symptoms is increasing during adolescence, to identify possible risk and protective factors, and to develop effective prevention approaches (Yoon et al, 2019). It has been demonstrated in recent research that increasing social media use is one important factor affecting adolescents' mental health, and that social media use may have more adverse psychological impact on girls than on boys (McRae et al, 2017). Neira and Barber (2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
