Conceptualizing the role of racial–ethnic identity in U.S. adolescent social technology use and well-being.

= 668; ages 10-17; 45.7% non-White). Furthermore, the roles of self-identified racial-ethnic groups, identity importance, exposure to hate messaging, and gender are investigated. Our study found significant moderating effects of racial-ethnic importance, gender, and online hate messaging. Additionally, the moderating role of race-ethnicity reveals a stronger association between greater social media frequency and heightened depressive symptoms among Asian adolescents. Black adolescents showed a significant association between greater social media frequency and decreased online social anxiety. Significant effects of online hate messaging exposure also reveal associations between online behaviors and depression and online social anxiety across adolescents. As social media adoption coincides with identity exploration, this study highlights how racial-ethnic identity and its formation in the digital age is important to understand its association with online interactions that may help or hinder adolescent wellbeing. Future work should continue examining trajectories of identity formation in relation to social media content and differential mental health impacts.