Mental Health and Well-being Profile of Young Adults Using Social Media: YouTube users are the most likely to have poorer mental health outcomes; Instagram and Snapchat users tend to have higher well-being

Di Cara, Nina H., Lizzy Winstone, Luke Sloan, Oliver Davis, and CMA Haworth. 2021. “The Mental Health and Well-being Profile of Young Adults Using Social Media.” PsyArXiv. November 30. doi:10.31234/osf.io/3bqvz

Abstract: The relationship between mental health and social media has received significant research and policy attention. However, there is little population representative data about who social media users are which limits understanding of confounding in associations between mental health and social media. Here we profile users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children population cohort (N=4,083). We provide estimates of demographics and mental health and well-being outcomes by platform. We find that users of different platforms and frequencies are not homogenous. User groups differ primarily by sex and YouTube users are the most likely to have poorer mental health outcomes. Instagram and Snapchat users tend to have higher well-being. Relationships between use-frequency and well-being differ depending on the specific well-being construct measured. The reproducibility of future research may be improved by stratifying by sex and being specific about the well-being constructs used.