In partnership with Vicky Rideout and I, Common Sense Media created fact sheets based on our national study and I thought I’d share slices of data in a series of posts.
The complete survey findings, methodology, quotes from participants, fact sheets, and questionnaire are available here.
Here’s the 10-second summary for this featured group, young people living with depressive symptoms:
Four in ten young people (38%) report symptoms of moderate to severe depression, up from 25% in 2018. Teens and young adults with depression are highly engaged in digital health pursuits. They are also far more likely to say that using social media makes them feel better rather than worse when they are feeling down.
Here are the details:
The survey included the eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale (PHQ-8):
Over the last 2 weeks, how often have you been bothered by the following problems?
- Little interest or pleasure in doing things
- Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless
- Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or sleeping too much
- Feeling tired or having little energy
- Poor appetite or overeating
- Feeling bad about yourself – or that you are a failure or have let yourself or your family down
- Trouble concentrating on things – such as reading the newspaper or watching television
- Moving or speaking so slowly that other people could have noticed. Or, the opposite – being so fidgety or restless that you have been moving around a lot more than usual
- Not at all
- Several days
- Over half the days
- Nearly every day
Rates of depressive symptoms have increased substantially among teens and young adults over the past two years; those directly affected by the coronavirus have higher rates than others their age.
- 38% of all 14- to 22-year-olds report symptoms of moderate to severe depression, up from 25% in 2018.
- Among young people who say that they or a family member became sick from the coronavirus, half (51%) report symptoms of moderate to severe depression, compared to 36% of others their age.
Social media has played an important role in keeping youth informed and connected during the coronavirus pandemic.
- About half (53%) of young people say social media has been “very” important to them during the pandemic for staying connected to friends and family, and about a third say social media has been “very” important for staying informed about current events (34%) and understanding how to protect themselves against the virus (31%).
Young people are far more likely to say that using social media makes them feel better rather than worse when they are feeling down; those with depressive symptoms consider social media even more important than others their age do.
- 43% of all 14- to 22-year-old social media users say that when they feel depressed, stressed, or anxious, using social media usually makes them feel better, compared to just 17% who say it makes them feel worse (the rest say it makes no difference either way). This is up from 27% who said social media made them feel better in 2018.
- Among those with moderate to severe depressive symptoms, 29% say social media is “very” important for getting inspiration from others (vs. 17% for those without symptoms), 28% say it’s “very” important for feeling less alone (vs. 13%), and 26% say it’s “very” important for getting support or advice when needed (vs. 15%).
Young people with moderate to severe depressive symptoms use social media far more frequently than others their age, and their use of social media has increased over the past two years.
- Young people with moderate to severe depressive symptoms are nearly twice as likely as those without depression to say they use social media “almost constantly” (34% vs. 18%).
- In 2018, 21% of youth with moderate to severe depressive symptoms used social media “almost constantly”; today, 34% do.
- The percent of those with depression who say social media is “very” important for getting support and advice has more thandoubled since 2018, from 11% to 26%.
Among young people reporting symptoms of severe depression, social media may pose greater concerns.
- 5% of our survey sample report experiencing symptoms of “severe” levels of depression. Since this group represents a small sample size, findings should be viewed with extreme caution.
- There are indications that social media plays an outsized role among this small group: It’s more important for inspiration (43% say it’s “very” important, vs. 17% of those without depression) and feeling less alone (49% say “very” important, vs. 13%), but it’s also more likely to make respondents feel anxious, lonely, or depressed (42% say using social media during the pandemic has made them feel more anxious, compared to 10% of those without depression).
Digital health tools are popular:
- Fully 86% of young people living with depressive symptoms have gone online to look for health information and three out of four (75%) have used mobile apps related to health.
- Young people living with depressive symptoms are more likely than other young people to have connected with providers online (58% vs. 37%) and to have tried to connect online with others facing similar health concerns (51% vs. 28%).
Our survey is one window into the lives of teens and young adults. I hope it’s useful for those who seek to inject data and young people’s own voices into the public conversation.
Which data points resonate with you? Which surprise you? Please let me know what you think in the comments.
Special thanks to Alanna Peebles, PhD, of Common Sense for preparing these fact sheets:
- COVID-19, depression, and social media use / El coronavirus, la depresión y el uso de redes sociales entre adolescentes y adultos jóvenes (de 14 a 22 años).
- Black youth
- Hispanic/Latinx youth / La salud mental, las prácticas de salud digital y el uso de redes sociales entre adolescentes y adultos jóvenes hispanos / latinos en Estados Unidos (de 14 a 22 años).
- LGBTQ+ youth
- Female youth
- Problematic substance use
- Telehealth
Featured image courtesy of Common Sense Media.
Thanks so much, Susannah. Very helpful to have a broader look at perspectives of social media use among youth the past year as other social connections have been diminished. As always, you bring relevant and interesting data and context to the rest of us ❤️ Pam
Thanks, Pam! It was an honor to get to work with Vicky Rideout and our other research partners on this project.
thank you as always. this is very distressing. social media may be bringing some positivity, particularly when it brings those together who share a condition, etc. – but, it is so addictive and can keep us from so many other positive pursuits.
I’m curious when the surveys were taken and if moving toward some kind of better time ahead was known when the surveys were taken.
clearly it is such an ominous time as well for the US especially, with so much vitriolic, so much violence. we appreciate this knowledge – for us working in and around diabetes, it’s a double warning sign, since this likely reflects people able to do less well with their health overall if they are depressed and then that leading to poorer habits, and that contributing to worse outcomes, and again and again and again …
for all the discouragement about this, the situation you describe rings very true to me. I’m curious if there are some therapeutic area communities who you see doing better than you might have expected and if so, if you know how that’s happening, that would be so valuable to hear. much appreciation and admiration to you both …
Great questions and call-outs, Kelly!
Here’s a summary of the methodology:
• Conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.
• Data collected from September to November 2020.
• Offered online or by phone, in English or Spanish.
• Included extensive open-ended questions for respondents to share personal experiences.
• Findings were compared to separate cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2018.
• Data was analyzed by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ identity.
• Screeners were included in the survey to identify levels of depressive symptoms (PHQ-8) and risk for problematic substance use (CRAFFT).
• Changes over time and differences between subgroups were tested for statistical significance at the level of p < .05.
As for your other questions, I would love to hear from other people about their observations.
There’s evidence that older adults are faring better in terms of mental health status. Here’s a great New York Times article about some cross-generational studies:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/12/health/covid-pandemic-happiness-age.html
A quote:
“…these studies bolster a theory of emotional development and aging formulated by Dr. Carstensen that psychologists have been debating for years. This view holds that, when people are young, their goals and motives are focused on gaining skills and taking chances, to prepare for opportunities the future may hold….
After middle age, people become more aware of a narrowing time horizon and, consciously or not, begin to gravitate toward daily activities that are more inherently pleasing than self-improving.
…A pandemic that began by disproportionately killing the elderly has also savagely turned on the young, robbing them of normal school days, graduations, sports, first jobs, or any real social life — and shaming them, often publicly, if they tried to have one. Now, in a shrinking economy, they’re at the back of the vaccine line.”
Thank you so much, as always, for your thoughtful work. I am having trouble reconciling the fact that teens report that social media makes them feel better and so much research that points to social media as a source of deeper discontent and mental health challenges especially in young, developing minds. Were the questionnaires being answered with a short-term frame of mind (i.e. “the pain-killer makes me feel better” despite side-effects)? How do we understand long-term well-being versus short-term anesthetic?
Definitely check out the questionnaire at the back of the report to see what you think of the framing of the questions.
We hope to present a nuanced picture of a complex situation. We were committed to asking the respondents to tell us, in their own words, about how social media has made them feel better or worse.
For example, on the “better” side:
“Social media has made me feel less depressed
because I have been able to make new online
friends. I have started a small business through
social media during the pandemic and have been
able to communicate with customers and other
small business owners very easily.”
—16-year-old girl
“ I was able to keep in touch with my friends, [and]
we could game together online or watch TV shows
or movies together online, so it was almost like
hanging out with them in person.”
—17-year-old boy
“ I use Discord, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram .
to talk to friends, share my art with others, and .
see my friend’s art and other projects.”
—19-year-old woman
“ It helps to talk to other kids who are feeling the
same kind of isolation from doing school remotely
and basically having everything change about our
high school experience as seniors this year.”
—17-year-old girl
“ Social media has made me feel less depressed
during the coronavirus pandemic because I was
able to follow inspirational accounts and connect
with friends that I could not see in person. .
Of course, video chats helped a lot as well.”
—18-year-old woman
And on the “worse” side:
“ Having a constant stream of negative news directly
to your phone is bound to have a negative impact on
mood and outlook. It makes me concerned for my
health and future. For me, though, it is more about
the local social element of social media. It can make
you feel isolated and alone from everyone else.”
—16-year-old boy
“ The constant barrage about deaths and other
travesties that are happening across the country
and the world is exhausting. I scroll through
Instagram, [and] I learn about people dying in the
Middle East. I’m reminded of the wildfires that are
consuming the West Coast. I see every issue in the
world, and I am literally just on my phone, helpless
to fix any of them. Social media connects you to the
world, but it also has connected me to the world’s
problems, which have started to feel like my own.”
—16-year-old boy
“ I am tired of hearing about all of the political junk
and the pandemic, and it makes me wish the state .
of the world would be better.”
—19-year-old woman
“ I saw mostly just celebrities who could afford to
do whatever they wanted with their time in
quarantine, and that greatly depressed me since
I was struggling to pay my bills/manage small
children in my household for months.”
—21-year-old woman
Nicolas – Common Sense recently published a review of some of the key research and issues regarding social media and mental health, which may be helpful – you can access it here: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/tweens-teens-tech-and-mental-health
Thank you, Vicky. I’m reading that report now and will look at the video over the next few days.
Thank you Susannah — really helpful.