Pupils’ Use of Social Media and Its Relation to Mental Health from a School Personnel Perspective: A Preliminary Qualitative Study

Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland,Randi Træland Hella,Viktor Schønning,Bodil Elisabeth Valstad Aasan,Jens Christoffer Skogen

doi:10.3390/ijerph18179163

Abstract

The extent of mental health problems among adolescents seems to be on the rise, and this observed trend has often been linked to a coinciding increase in social media use. The goal of the current preliminary study was to investigate how senior high school personnel experience the role of social media in relation to the mental health of their pupils. Two focus group interviews (total n = 11) were completed and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, resulting in 4 themes and 11 subthemes. The results illustrate that school personnel experience social media as a tool for communication, but also as a potential cause of mental health issues and reduced academic performance among pupils. The participants called for schools to become better equipped to meet the opportunities and challenges of social media.

Highlights

Over the course of a few decades, social media has come to play an important role in most people’s daily lives
The increased use of social media among adolescents over the last decades has been suggested as a potential cause of the increase in reported mental health problems among adolescents, as the phenomena coincide [5,6,7,8]
We aimed to explore school staff’s experiences and understandings of the relationship between social media use and adolescents’ mental health and well-being

Summary

Introduction

Over the course of a few decades, social media has come to play an important role in most people’s daily lives. 1), social media “employ mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content”. The increased use of social media among adolescents over the last decades has been suggested as a potential cause of the increase in reported mental health problems among adolescents, as the phenomena coincide [5,6,7,8]. Within the research field, there is a discussion regarding the impact and relevance of social media in relation to adolescents’ mental health and well-being. While some studies have identified a statistically significant association between increased social media use and mental health problems (e.g., [7,12,13]), the associations are small and their practical consequences have

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion