Research from University College London is the first of its kind to look at associations between social media and depressive symptoms and analysed data from nearly 11,000 young people from the Millennium Cohort Study.
Participants in the study completed information on their social media use, online harassment, sleep patterns, self-esteem and body image – all of which are potentially linked to having depressive symptoms.
They also completed a Moods and Feelings Questionnaire, which asked them about their experiences in the previous two weeks.
The study found that 14-year-old girls were heavier users of social media, with two fifths of them using it for more than three hours per day compared with one fifth of boys.
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