The impact of social networking sites use on health-related outcomes among UK adolescents

This study theorizes on and examines the impact of social networking sites (SNS) use on health outcomes in adolescents. By using data from the 2015-16 sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study, SNS use and its effects on sleep duration, healthy eating (fruits/vegetables intake, eating breakfast), and self-rated health was evaluated in 11,406 adolescents (13–15 years old). For this, a model was constructed and tested with the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Daily SNS use time was found to be negatively associated with general health; and this effect was fully mediated through decreased sleep duration and reduced healthy eating. Females had a higher risk of being negatively affected by the extent of their SNS use, compared to males. These findings contribute to the understanding of potential social media use effects on adolescents. They further show that established sex differences in sleep hygiene and healthy eating, which have been explained from the psychological and physiological perspective in prior research, can also stem, in part, from differences in social media use patterns. From a practical standpoint, strategies aimed at helping adolescents manage their sleep hygiene and healthy food intake despite their SNS use may be more fruitful than those aimed at assisting them to curb their social media use.

"The results show that the overall effect of SNS use on adolescents’ general health is fully mediated through their sleeping and eating behavior, and that sleeping also affects eating habits. The effect of SNS on health is stronger for female than for male adolescent users" (Serenko et al., 2021: 7). "First, it was confirmed that the use of SNS is associated with shorter sleep duration for both male and female adolescents – adolescents who use SNS more tend to go to sleep later and/or wake up earlier (this is how sleep duration was operationalized in this study)... The relationship between SNS use and sleep duration was found to be stronger for females than for males... Second, the findings indicate that SNS use has a negative association with healthy eating behavior, and this relationship is stronger (more negative) for female adolescents... Third, adequate sleep duration and healthy eating behavior are positively associated with good health... it was discovered that the negative impact of SNS use on adolescents’ general health level is fully mediated through sleep duration and healthy eating. This shows that by itself, SNS use does not directly affect adolescents’ health. Instead, it is the consequences of heavy SNS use, including insufficient sleep and unhealthy eating, that deteriorate adolescents’ general health level. This suggests that special attention should be paid to the mediating factors triggered by SNS overuse that negatively affect adolescents’ general health." (Serenko et al., 2021: 5-6).