Does social media use improve or worsen adolescents' internalizing behaviors?: Conclusions from a systematic narrative review

Understanding connections between social media use and youth's psychosocial adjustment has emerged as a goal to both psychology and communication scholars. Conclusions are presented from a systematic narrative review of 77 qualifying studies conducted between 2000-2016 evaluating the association between social media use and three forms of internalizing behaviors (depression, anxiety, and loneliness) among 10-18 year olds. For each behavior, three questions were addressed: 1) Is there an association (and direction) between social media use and the behavior?; 2) For whom does this association emerge?; 3) What factors account for this association? For depression (36 studies), a positive association between time spent on social media and depression emerges consistently. Gender, popularity, and perceived social support serve as moderators. Specific activities and experiences on social media (e.g., social comparison and feedback-seeking, passive and active use of Facebook, cybervictimization), sleep disturbance, and "FOMO" (fear-of-missing-out) are mediators. For anxiety (15 studies), the relationship with adolescents' social media use is best represented as a positive reciprocal relationship. Gender is a moderator. Mediators include reducing uncertainty about others, concern for privacy, FOMO, and cybervictimization. For loneliness (26 studies), there is a consistent positive relationship between the frequency/intensity of social media use and loneliness; loneliness is often the precursor. Moderators are age, personality, and experiences with social media activity. Mediators are motives for pursuing specific social media activities. Across outcomes, theoretically drive studies assessing why, with whom, and how teens interact online are needed to determine specific consequences of utilizing social media.