#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.
This study examined how social media use related to sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety and depression in 467 Scottish adolescents. We measured overall social media use, nighttime-specific social media use, emotional investment in social media, sleep quality, self-esteem and levels of anxiety and depression. Adolescents who used social media more - both overall and at night - and those who were more emotionally invested in social media experienced poorer sleep quality, lower self-esteem and higher levels of anxiety and depression. Nighttime-specific social media use predicted poorer sleep quality after controlling for anxiety, depression and self-esteem. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that social media use is related to various aspects of wellbeing in adolescents. In addition, our results indicate that nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media are two important factors that merit further investigation in relation to adolescent sleep and wellbeing.
University of Glasgow, School of Psychology, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Heather.Woods@Glasgow.ac.uk.
Heather Cleland
HC
Woods
University of Glasgow, School of Psychology, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: 0907122n@student.gla.ac.uk.
Holly
H
Scott
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012606:Scotland; D012649:Self Concept; D012890:Sleep; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Adolescence; Anxiety; Depression; Self-esteem; Sleep; Social media