New research shows social media use drives depressive symptoms in preteens.
As rates of depression and suicide among young people continue to rise, a question has captured experts’ attention: Does social media make kids more depressed, or are kids who are already struggling simply spending more time online?
A new study from UC San Francisco is shedding light on the issue. Researchers found that when preteens increased their social media use, their depressive symptoms also rose. Interestingly, the opposite was not true. Higher levels of depression did not lead to more time spent on social platforms.
The numbers are eye-opening. Over the three years of the study, kids’ daily social media use jumped from just seven minutes to 73 minutes. During that same period, their depressive symptoms climbed by 35%. The study, supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was published in JAMA Network Open.
Led by Jason Nagata, MD, MSc, an associate professor in UCSF’s Department of Pediatrics, the research team tracked nearly 12,000 children, starting when they were 9 to 10 years old and following up when they reached 12 to 13.
The study is among the first to use within-person longitudinal data, meaning researchers could track changes over time in each child to accurately assess the link between social media and depression.
“There has been ongoing debate about whether social media contributes to depression or simply reflects underlying depressive symptoms,” said Nagata. “These findings provide evidence that social media may be contributing to the development of depressive symptoms.”
Understanding the Mechanisms
While it’s unclear why social media increases depressive symptoms, prior research points to risks such as cyberbullying and disrupted sleep. In fact, Nagata and team just published a separate study in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas looking at the same cohort of participants, focusing instead on the effects of cyberbullying.
The study found kids aged 11 to 12 years who were cyberbullied were 2.62 times more likely to report suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt one year later. Additionally, those kids were also 2.31 times more likely to experiment with a substance (4.65 times more likely with marijuana, 3.37 with nicotine, and 1.92 with alcohol) in the following year.
A Difficult Balancing Act
Increasingly, the youngest generations find themselves facing a catch-22, with growing evidence that social media is associated with depressive symptoms and risky behavior, yet it is also a primary area for them to connect and communicate with friends.
To address this reality, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests using the tools in its Family Media Plan to create healthier digital habits for both kids and parents.
“As a father of two young kids, I know that simply telling children to ‘get off your phone’ doesn’t really work,” said Nagata. “Parents can lead by example with open, nonjudgmental conversations about screen use. Setting screen-free times for the whole family, such as during meals or before bed, can help build healthier digital habits for everyone, including adults.”
Reference: “Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms During Early Adolescence” by Jason M. Nagata, Christopher D. Otmar, Joan Shim, Priyadharshini Balasubramanian, Chloe M. Cheng, Elizabeth J. Li, Abubakr A. A. Al-Shoaibi, Iris Y. Shao, Kyle T. Ganson, Alexander Testa, Orsolya Kiss, Jinbo He and Fiona C. Baker, 21 May 2025, JAMA Network Open.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11704
Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (K08HL159350 and R01MH135492) and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (2022056).
Disclosures: Fiona C. Baker, PhD, reported receiving grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the conduct of the study.
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8 Comments
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Everyone knows this, so why don’t they implement it ? Every person in the world who searches for unscientific and immoral texts on the internet , First, warn that person via text message , If it happens again, the person’s internet will be disconnected for several hours. Tell people to seek science and logic .
********* good luck *********
Maybe just scrap the entire internet. It causes more trouble than it is worth. Landline telephone/fax machines give access to very rapid communication and yet are too bothersome to waste time on mucking about, as happens with idiot mobile phones. back to the good old days of service at the local branch of one’s bank and maybe fewer casualties on our roads……………
How old are you?
Let’s go back to party lines. Oh wait… we’re using one, now.
Unfortunately, just another ignorant and incompetent effort on the part of public officials and researchers to analyze human behavior without factoring-in a couple of diet related essentials. There is a (my) kind of nearly subclinical non-IgE-mediated food (minimally) allergy reactions first reported on by Dr. Arthur F. Coca by 1935, which can cause mental health problems, which mainstream medicine still fails to recognize and research as true allergies. Then, there are at least a few FDA approved food additives which can upset the metabolism of kids, the delicate balance of glutamate in the brain, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle and causing mental disorders. Until those (minimally) factors are incorporated into the research, the results are merely coincidental.
Good points. At least they should be investigated.
Another one is the plasticizers in all the food containers we buy food in now. They are All Plastic, and while you can easily find a non-teflon frying pan, no one has said a word about chemicals that leach into the food from the container.
These plasticizers mimic estrogen and help cause earlier puberty in girls and earlier sexual activity. Boys become more sedentary as you say.
A deadly two-sided attack on our children’s health.
I’m with RFKjr ONLY so far as he initiates an examination of the safety of food additives the FDA dismisses as “Generally accepted as Safe” (GAAS). They have a list. If they don’t look, they won’t find what they need to find.
Thank you, Windy, good points, too. For more details, you might visit the “About” page of my ad-free video channel: https://odysee.com/@charlesgshaver:d?view=about
Fare thee well.
Trace the depressive effect to the origin: it was Facebook and the exploitation of young people’s insecurity and intense search to determine information about the other young folk’s interests; in order to safely conform and escape criticism. This development in human society was an indicator – a canary in the coal mine signal that we have not paid attention to what drives us; the actual biological dictates of our feeding, mating and self-protecting origins. If we are to escape Earth’s gravity and populate the Inner Ring, we need to examine our biological origins.