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Social media use proposed as addition to adolescent psychosocial screening
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With the increased use of social media among adolescents, a group of researchers has suggested adding social media use questions to a standardized adolescent psychosocial screening, according to a perspective published in Pediatrics.
“As social media plays a powerful role in the psychosocial health of adolescents, we advocate adding a 4th "S" to the HEADSSS assessment for questions about social media use,” Danielle L. Clark, BS, a fourth-year medical student at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “This extension will evaluate the amount of time spent on social media, its psychological effects, and if the patient has experienced abusive or high-risk social media activity, eg, cyberbullying, sexting, and sexual predators.”
Clark and colleagues reported that the average child is aged 11.4 years when opening his or her first social media account, with use progressing into adulthood. Social media use of 16 minutes per days was reported for the average child aged 10 to 12 years, and 71 minutes per day for teenagers. Female teens reported an average of 142 minutes per day of social media use, the highest engagement.
The likelihood of anxiety increases during withdrawal from devices, with 80% of college students reporting that when their phone is not in sight, they experience anxiety.
“Teenagers engaging in low levels of social media reap positive benefits of social connection and access to information, but those in the top 10% of time on social networking platforms are at increased risk for many negative consequences, including cyberbullying, unauthorized distribution of sexting, depressive symptoms and decreased self-worth,” the researchers wrote. “A primary care or adolescence medicine clinician could miss important information about a teenager’s psychosocial history if aberrant social media usage patterns are not identified and directly addressed.”
Primary care practitioners use the standardized assessment tool HEADSSS (home life, education, activities, drugs, sexual activity, safety, and suicide and/or depression) as the current standard for adolescent psychosocial screening, according to the researchers. Parents or legal guardians are not usually in the examination room when the screening is performed.
The researchers have suggested adding a specific framework based on social media use for patients aged older than 11 years, who should be asked the following questions:
- Which social media sites and/or apps to you regularly use?
- How long do you spend on social media sites and/or applications in a typical day? (If the child answers more than 120 minutes per day, this would be a concerning response.)
- Do you think you use social media too much? (If they answer yes, ask if they have attempted to remedy it.)
- Does viewing social media increase or decrease your self-confidence?
- Have you personally experienced cyberbullying, sexting or an online user asking to have a sexual relation with you?
“Any concerning responses may be addressed with follow-up visits, creation of a family media plan, or behavioral health referral,” Clark said. – by Bruce Thiel
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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