Social media exposure and anxiety and depression in young people: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of longitudinal and experimental studies

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current review was to comprehensively synthesize the evidence for the relationship between social media use and anxiety and depression symptoms in young people using data from robust methodological designs, namely, longitudinal and experimental studies. METHODS: PsycINFO, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus databases were searched for peer-reviewed, English-language, longitudinal and experimental studies. Included studies measured SMU in terms of time or frequency of use, mainly via self-report, used standardized measures of depression and anxiety, and recruited samples ranging from 10 to 24 years of age. RESULTS: Screening retrieved 37 eligible studies that included 36 longitudinal observational studies and one experiment. Twelve studies examined depression outcomes (pooled r = .08, 95% CIs [0.04, 0.11]), and five studies examined anxiety (pooled r = 0.093, 95% CIs [0.059, 0.126]), showing very small linear effects. There were no moderating effects for year of publication, duration of follow-up or mean age of sample for the depression effects. CONCLUSIONS: Given the very weak relationships between SMU and the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms, SMU is unlikely to account for the contemporary youth mental health crisis. Further longitudinal research designed to examine potential non-monotonic relationships between SMU and adverse mental health outcomes is required, along with attention to other potential causes of increased prevalence of mental health problems in young people.