From Days to Months: The Effect of Social Media Use on Stress Among Adolescents Accumulates Over Time.

Purpose

Although often linked, much is unknown about the relationship between adolescents' social media use and stress in everyday life. This study examined how the effect of social media use on stress unfolds at daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly levels, focusing on overall effects and person-specific effects. We also tested whether adolescents differed in effects based on their gender, age, and trait resilience.

Methods

We used a 100-day diary study among 479 adolescents (44,211 completed observations). Participants reported daily stress levels and time spent on frequently used social media platforms. Trait-level moderators were measured in a baseline questionnaire.

Results

The average daily effect of social media use on stress was negligible (β = .03). However, there was substantial variation among adolescents in our sample: Person-specific effect sizes suggest a positive link between usage and stress among 37.0% of adolescents and a negative link among 14.2% of adolescents. Differences in these effect sizes could not be explained by gender, age, or trait resilience. At broader timescales, the average effect sizes of social media use with stress tended to strengthen, and more adolescents experienced increased stress on usage, rising from weekly (β = .05), over biweekly (β = .07), to monthly levels (β = .13).

Discussion

On average, the daily impact of adolescents' social media use on stress seems minimal. However, the pattern of effect sizes suggests that the effect may become more pronounced over longer periods. This study is a first step toward understanding how everyday social media-related stress potentially accumulates over time.