Do you believe social media is good for you? Associations between adolescents’ beliefs about social media and mental health

J Affect Disord. 2025 Oct 23:120543. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.120543. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Adolescents engage with social media daily and are frequently exposed to portrayals about its potential harms. Such portrayals may influence public belief, leading key adults in adolescents’ lives to internalize negative views, which could shape adolescents’ own beliefs about social media’s impact on their mental health.

METHOD: This study used cross-sectional survey data collected in 2020 and 2021 from adolescents (N=3,568, mean age=17.3, 55% girls). The study examined the relationship between social media beliefs and gender, subjective socioeconomic status, mental health, and personality traits using logistic regression models with restricted cubic splines. Covariates included self-reported duration and frequency of social media use.

RESULTS: Most adolescents held balanced beliefs about social media’s impact, with over one-third believing it had both positive and negative effects (n=1,327). More girls than boys reported very negative beliefs, while socioeconomic status showed little variation across belief categories. The relationship between social media beliefs and anxiety followed a curvilinear pattern, with both highly positive and highly negative beliefs linked to higher anxiety. Negative beliefs were associated with higher levels of depression and lower well-being, whereas positive beliefs aligned with better mental health.

CONCLUSION: Adolescents largely believe that social media is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. While findings suggest that negative beliefs correlate with poorer mental health and positive beliefs with better well-being, causal relationships remain uncertain.

PMID:41138949 | DOI:10.1016/j.jad.2025.120543