Project AWeSoMe is proud to share that the article    Changing or stable? The effects of adolescents' social media use on psychosocial functioning    by Loes Pouwels, Ine Beyens, Loes Keijsers, and Patti Valkenburg has ranked within the top 10% most-viewed articles published in    Child Development in 2024.

Youths are increasingly turning to TikTok for mental health information, making the platform an important space where young people encounter portrayals of mental illness. Through a content analysis of 210 TikTok videos, the study examined how depression-related symptoms are portrayed on the platform, how these portrayals differ by creator type, and how they relate to user engagement.

This study   was published in JMIR Infodemiology and conducted by Elena Rainer as part of her master’s thesis, was developed into a full publication in collaboration with Amber van der Wal and Ine Beyens within Project AWeSoMe.

🔍 What we found:

• Diagnostic accuracy of depression-related content on TikTok is generally low.
• This holds for both medical professionals and non-professionals.
• Engagement is driven more by how content is presented (e.g., emotional appeals, personal experiences, background music) than by diagnostic accuracy.

These findings raise important questions about the depression-related content young people encounter online—and highlight the need to improve both the quality and communication of mental health information on social media.

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📢 Project AWeSoMe celebrates a new publication! 📢

Teenagers spend a lot of time communicating with friends online, but how do those interactions actually affect their wellbeing?

In a preregistered 100-day diary study with 479 adolescents, Loes Janssen together with Amber van der Wal and Ine Beyens found that:

💚 Feeling supported by friends online → higher wellbeing, lower distress

💔 Feeling ignored by friends online → lower wellbeing, higher distress

Adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms showed amplified effects in both directions: more vulnerable to negative experiences, but also gaining more from positive ones.

For parents and clinicians, this highlights the value of open conversations: helping adolescents navigate their digital social world more purposefully, and in doing so, supporting their mental health.

Find the full article here and check out the LinkedIn post!

How does using social media relate to feeling lonely, and why do some adolescents seem to be more affected than others? A new study by Rebecca Godard, Amber van der Wal, and   Ine Beyens sheds light on these questions using intensive, real‑time data from teenagers’ daily lives.

What the study did

The researchers analyzed   experience sampling data   from   387 adolescents. By repeatedly tracking both   social media use   and   feelings of loneliness, the study could examine not just whether the two are related, but also   what psychological processes   might explain that link, and how these processes differ   between adolescents   and   within the same adolescent over time.

Mediation effects that differ between and within users

A novel contribution of this study is methodological as well as substantive. It is the first study to demonstrate that the mediation effects linking social media use to well‑being and ill‑being can vary both between users and within individual users over time. This means that not all adolescents are affected by social media in the same way. For some, social comparison or low social capital may strongly link social media use to loneliness; for others, these mechanisms may be weaker or different. Even within the same adolescent, these processes can change from moment to moment. On some days or in some situations, social media use might be more strongly tied to social comparison and loneliness than on others.

Recognizing this variability is crucial for moving beyond simple “good vs. bad” narratives about social media and instead understanding   when, how, and for whom   social media use is most problematic.

Links

🔗 Check out the pre-print here!

💼  Find us on LinkedIn!