Study: Social media increases children's risk of depression

 

Teenagers using smartphones

Study: Social media increases children's risk of depression

A new study has shown that social media makes children more vulnerable to depression.

Researchers in a study published a few days ago in JAMA Network Open found that pre-teens are more likely to experience symptoms of depression as their social media use increases.

Researchers found that depressive symptoms increased by 35% as children's average social media use increased from seven minutes to 73 minutes per day over a three-year period, according to a report by U.S. News & World Report, reviewed by Al Arabiya Business.

However, the opposite was not true; the results show that children with depression did not necessarily turn to social media.

"There has been an ongoing debate about whether social media contributes to depression or simply reflects underlying depressive symptoms," said lead study author Jason Nagata, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

"These findings provide evidence that social media may contribute to depressive symptoms," Nagata added in a press release.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 12,000 children participating in the Adolescent Cognitive Brain Development Study, a federally funded research project that is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.

The researchers examined children's depressive symptoms and social media use at ages nine and ten, and then three years later at ages twelve and thirteen.

The results showed that children's social media use increased steadily as they got older, from an average of seven minutes per day at the beginning to 73 minutes per day three years later.

The researchers found that this increase in social media use was associated with increased depressive symptoms, taking into account specific changes in each child.

The research team said it's not entirely clear why social media use leads to increased depression, but the researchers noted that previous research suggests that cyberbullying and sleep disturbances may be possible explanations.

The researchers believe that younger generations find themselves in a dilemma. Social media is a primary means of connecting with friends and family, but it is also associated with depression and risky behaviors.