Betul Keles
King’s College London, London
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care
Social media has become
inextricable to our daily
lives. However, social media are
blamed for an increase in mental
health problems in the current
generation of children and
adolescents.
Objective: The purpose of this
paper is to review and evaluate
the impact of social media on the
incidence of depression, anxiety
and psychological distress in
adolescents. A systematic search
of a multi-database including
PsycINFO, Medline, Embase,
CINAHL and SSC was undertaken.
Eligible studies were reviewed
with the NIH quality assessment
tool for observational cohort
and cross-sectional studies,
followed by narrative synthesis.
Thirteen studies were eligible
for inclusion. Critical appraisal
revealed poor to fair quality
in included studies regarding
their methods, design and
sampling. Results of studies were
classified into four domains of
exposure to social media: time
spent, activity, investment and
addiction. The evidence showed
that all domains were correlated
with depression, anxiety
and psychological distress in
adolescents. Some studies found
that insomnia and rumination
mediated the relationship
between social media addiction
and depression. Overall, this
review found indicative evidence
that social media use related to
the increased risk of depression,
anxiety and psychological
distress, although there are
considerable caveats due to the
methodological limitations of
cross-sectional studies and use
of self-report questionnaires.
Underlying mechanisms in this
putative causal relationship
should be explored in future
research, with longitudinal
studies to measure the longerterm
effects of social media on
mental health.
Journal of Nursing & Care received 4230 citations as per Google Scholar report
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