Psychology Commons^™

Social Media Use In Adolescence: Longitudinal Relationships With Social Functioning And Psychopathology, Aidan P. Schmitt

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Social media use and psychopathology are both prevalent during adolescence; however, the relationship between these two variables is not yet fully understood. Research on these topics is generally myopic in that it focuses on a brief window of time (e.g., cross-sectional studies), a small number of variables (e.g., hours spent per day; depressive symptoms), and uses single reporters and measures (e.g., adolescent report using a questionnaire). Extant literature shows moderate relationships between frequency of social media use and depressive symptoms; however, most studies do not use statistical methods that investigate bidirectionality or parse apart between-person and within-person effects, so effects …