Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Does Time Spent Using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight Year Longitudinal Study, Sarah M. Coyne, Adam A. Rogers, Jessica D. Zurcher, Laura Stockdale, Mccall Booth

Faculty Publications

Many studies have found a link between time spent using social media and mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. However, the existing research is plagued by cross-sectional research and lacks analytic techniques examining individual change over time. The current research involves an 8-year longitudinal study examining the association between time spent using social media and depression and anxiety at the intra-individual level. Participants included 500 adolescents who completed once-yearly questionnaires between the ages of 13 and 20. Results revealed that increased time spent on social media was not associated with increased mental health issues across development when examined …