Elsevier

Journal of Adolescence

Volume 51, August 2016, Pages 41-49
Journal of Adolescence

#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Studied social media use, sleep quality and wellbeing in 467 adolescents.

  • Examined emotional investment in social media and overall vs. nighttime-specific use.

  • Social media use associated with poor sleep, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.

  • Poor sleep most strongly associated with nighttime-specific social media use.

  • Anxiety and depression most strongly associated with emotional investment in sites.

Abstract

This study examined how social media use related to sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety and depression in 467 Scottish adolescents. We measured overall social media use, nighttime-specific social media use, emotional investment in social media, sleep quality, self-esteem and levels of anxiety and depression. Adolescents who used social media more – both overall and at night – and those who were more emotionally invested in social media experienced poorer sleep quality, lower self-esteem and higher levels of anxiety and depression. Nighttime-specific social media use predicted poorer sleep quality after controlling for anxiety, depression and self-esteem. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that social media use is related to various aspects of wellbeing in adolescents. In addition, our results indicate that nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media are two important factors that merit further investigation in relation to adolescent sleep and wellbeing.

Introduction

Social media sites – such as Facebook and Twitter – have rapidly become a central part of young people's lives, with over 90% now using social media, day and night (Duggan & Smith, 2013). Evidence is increasingly supporting a link between social media use and various aspects of adolescent wellbeing, including sleep and mental health (e.g. Espinoza, 2011, Farahani et al., 2011, Pantic et al., 2012). Poor sleep quality is prevalent in adolescents (Telzer, Fulgini, Lieberman, & Galván, 2013), and is known to contribute to depression, anxiety and low self-esteem (Alfano et al., 2009, Fredriksen et al., 2004). Since adolescence is a period of increased vulnerability for low self-esteem and the onset of depression and anxiety (McLaughlin and King, 2015, Orth et al., 2015), it is essential to understand how social media use relates to these factors. The present study makes a novel contribution to the literature by examining how overall vs. nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media relate to sleep quality, anxiety, depression and self-esteem in adolescents.

Section snippets

Social media and sleep quality

There is a substantial body of evidence linking poor sleep to computer and Internet use in general, with only a small number of recent studies examining social media use specifically. Increased Internet use is associated with shorter sleep duration (Garmy et al., 2012, Pea et al., 2012); later bedtimes and rise times (Garmy et al., 2012, Shochat et al., 2010, Van den Bulck, 2004); longer sleep latencies (Shochat et al., 2010); and increased daytime tiredness in adolescents (Garmy et al., 2012,

Social media and psychological wellbeing

Since poor sleep is known to contribute to anxiety, depression and low self-esteem during adolescence (Alfano et al., 2009, Fredriksen et al., 2004), this study also examines how adolescents' social media use relates to these aspects of psychological wellbeing. Adolescence is a vulnerable period where individuals are at risk for low self-esteem (Orth et al., 2015) and the onset of anxiety and depression (McLaughlin & King, 2015.). Therefore, it is crucial that we explore how adolescents' social

Participants and procedure

Participants were 467 Scottish secondary school pupils, aged 11–17 years. Pupils in 1st to 4th year (aged 11–15) completed questionnaires in class, either in pencil-and-paper form or online, hosted by qualtrics.com. Participants were briefed and gave written consent to participate either with a signed consent form (for those completing paper questionnaires) or using an onscreen tick box at the start of the online survey. When required, the researcher and class teacher provided language support

Results

Mean scores and standard deviations for each measure are presented in Table 1. 97% of participants indicated that they used social media. 35% of participants were classed as poor sleepers, with a PSQI score greater than 5 (Buysse et al., 1989). PSQI scores were positively skewed, so were transformed – by taking log 10(score + 1) – to meet normality assumptions for all further analysis. 47% of participants were classed as anxious and 21% as depressed, according to the HADS cut-off score of 8 or

Discussion

The aim of this study was to examine how social media use – including nighttime-specific use and emotional investment in social media – relates to sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety and depression in adolescents. As expected, greater overall social media use, nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media were each associated with poorer sleep quality and higher levels of anxiety and depression. In addition we found that overall use, nighttime-specific use and

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