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Facebook not associated with depression in teens and young adults

There was no evidence supporting a relationship between social networking site use and clinical depression in adolescents and young adults, according to recent study results. The findings were inconsistent with an American Academy of Pediatrics report, which suggested that exposure to the social networking site Facebook could lead to depression.

“We did not find evidence in support of ‘Facebook depression,’ or a relationship between social networking site use and clinical depression,” study researcher Lauren A. Jelenchick, MPH, of the department of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Healio.com. “Thus, advising patients or parents about this risk may be premature. In the future, it may be just as important to assess what adolescents are doing on social networking sites and how their use fits into the larger context of their daily lives, instead of focusing only on the number of hours they are online each day.”

Jelenchick and colleagues surveyed 190 undergraduate students aged 18 to 23 years who were recruited from an introductory communications course at UW-Madison.

The online survey contained the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to assess depression symptoms over the past 2 weeks. The survey also measured Internet activity in real-time, asking students to describe whether they were online, for how long and what they were doing online.

Social networking sites were the most commonly reported Internet activity, according to the researchers. Participants were on social networking sites for over half of the total time spent online (53%; 95% CI, 49%-57%). Most participants reported using social networking sites for less than 30 minutes (53%) or between 30 minutes and 2 hours (39%). A minority of participants reported using social networking sites for more than 2 hours daily (8%). The mean PHQ-9 score was 5.4. The researchers found no associations between social networking site use and any type of depression (P=.519) or moderate to severe depression (P=.470).

The researchers said the study is strengthened by the rigor of the data collection design and validity of the measurements, but replication of the study results is warranted because of the sample’s ethnic homogeneity, the study’s focus on older adolescents in a single university setting and the sample size.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.