TDNet Discover

Background: Mental health has become an important issue in the United States as rates of selfharm and suicide continue to rise. Among youth, mental illness and related treatment have been strongly correlated with the recent increase in use of technology and media platforms. Despite this, no standard recommendation for daily total time spent using social media has been established. Objective: To conduct a systematic review of existing literature to further investigate the relationship between social media use and mental health, to discover a causative relationship between increased social networking time and an increase in mental health disorders. Methods: A systematic review was conducted by searching for articles published between January 2011 - January 2015 through three databases: PubMed, Medline, and CINAHL Complete. Final selection of articles was dependent on abstract and full text review, adherence to inclusion criteria, and agreement between three researchers. In total, six articles were selected and assessed for quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklists: one systematic review, one focus group study, one explorative study, and three cross-sectional studies. A quality assessment tool was utilized to assess internal validity and data extraction tool to aid in a qualitative analysis. Results: Across all studies, there were a total of 90,181 participants ranging in age from 11 to 29, with a mean age of less than 24.9 years. Included studies had data from eight different countries, including the US. Social media exposure ranged from no internet use to greater than 20 hours weekly. Four out of six articles revealed negative associations between social media use and mental health in adolescents including but not limited to anxiety, depression, self-esteem, iv 5 risk-taking behavior, and self-harm and suicidal ideation, while two articles showed potential for a positive association. Conclusion: The results of this systematic review support previous findings that a negative association exists between social media use and measures of mental health in adolescents. However, the suggested daily amount of time for social media use by adolescents in a healthy capacity is yet to be determined. Furthermore, additional research is needed to determine if social media platforms have the potential to positively impact mental illness and mental wellbeing.