Social Media Causes Decline in Mental Health of Teens

Researchers from the UK conducted a study on the determinants of young people’s well-being - how it is affected by their relationships, background, and use of social media.

The study, carried over two years, examined data from 5000 young people in England at age 11, 14, and 17. Focus group responses from November 2020 to study the effect of the pandemic were also used.

Results showed that factors like family income, exercise, and poor maternal health contributed to young people’s mental state. Regular exercise had a positive impact on both genders.

Findings also show there is a strong gender divide in the well-being of young people. Girls were found to have far lower levels of well-being and self-esteem than boys - both falling sharply during mid-adolescence.

Girls' mental health declines from age 14, with their well-being falling even lower towards the end of their teenage years and their depressive symptoms increasing significantly.

Girls are more likely to feel unhappy about their physical appearance. At age 11, one in seven girls felt this way, while at age 14, the number increased to one in three. "While girls tended to focus on the negative impact on body image," the report says. "Boys felt that the images they saw on social media platforms could be aspirational.”

Girls also experience more depressive symptoms (worthlessness or hopelessness) than boys. Frequent use of Social Media was also found to harm boys' and girls' well-being, especially girls' self-esteem.

However, the report also states that girls' self-esteem and well-being stabilizes as they move into their late teens, whereas it continues to drop for boys.

Researchers also determined that the pandemic is likely to worsen mental health and well-being problems in young people. One in six young people now has a probable mental illness, which has gone up from one in nine in 2017.

Researchers fear that isolation over the last year could have increased the risks of long-term damage to young people's well-being, especially due to school closure.

Whitney Crenna-Jennings, report author, says “The government has provided extra academic support for pupils, but there is now a compelling case for it to consider emergency funding to support young people’s mental health and well-being. If we fail to counter the ill-effects of this crisis on young people’s health and development, there is a real risk that it inflicts irreversible damage on their later life chances.”

Several recommendations, including a £650m package to schools for well-being funding after the pandemic and increased mental health teaching in schools, have been made in the report.

Jonathan Townsend, UK chief executive of The Prince’s Trust, adds that young people are among the hardest hit by the pandemic, so it is more important than ever to access support for their mental health during this critical time in their lives.

Source-Medindia