Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr:136:149-156.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.01.055. Epub 2021 Feb 2.

Altered markers of stress in depressed adolescents after acute social media use

Reem M A Shafi  1 , Paul A Nakonezny  2 , Keith A Miller  3 , Jinal Desai  3 , Ammar G Almorsy  3 , Anna N Ligezka  4 , Brooke A Morath  3 , Magdalena Romanowicz  3 , Paul E Croarkin  3
Affiliations

Altered markers of stress in depressed adolescents after acute social media use

Reem M A Shafi et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Social media use (SMU) is an inherent element in the daily life and neurodevelopment of adolescents, but broad concerns exist regarding the untoward effects of social media on adolescents. We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional study that sought to examine the acute effects of SMU on clinical measures and biomarkers of stress in healthy and depressed adolescents. After at least 24 h of abstinence from social media, depressed adolescents (n = 30) and healthy control adolescents (n = 30) underwent baseline clinical assessment of their prior SMU, depressive symptom severity, self-esteem, and exposure to bullying. Participants provided salivary samples that were analyzed for α-amylase and cortisol levels. After 20 min of unsupervised SMU, saliva analyses and clinical assessments were repeated. After 20 min of SMU, salivary cortisol and α-amylase levels were significantly higher in adolescents with depression but not in healthy control adolescents. Furthermore, small but statistically significant changes in depressive symptom severity occurred in all participants. These changes in depressive symptoms were not clinically meaningful. SMU did not significantly change self-esteem measures among participants. Adolescents with depression appeared to have more physiological reactivity after SMU compared with healthy adolescents. Further research should characterize SMU as a clinical dimension and risk factor among adolescents with depression and other psychiatric disorders.

Keywords: Adolescent; Cortisol; Depression; Social media; Stress markers; α-Amylase.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest: Dr Croarkin has received research grant support from Pfizer, Inc; equipment support from Neuronetics, Inc; and supplies and genotyping services from Assurex Health, Inc for investigator-initiated studies. He is the primary investigator for a multicenter study funded by Neuronetics, Inc and a site primary investigator for a study funded by NeoSync, Inc. Dr Croarkin is a consultant for Procter & Gamble Company and Myriad Neuroscience. The other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A. Adjusted LSM for Cortisol. In this linear mixed model, LSMs were adjusted for age, sex, pre-exposure social media addiction score, and pre-exposure cyberbullying score. Error bars indicate standard error. No significant group differences were observed at pre-exposure (adjusted P=.5739) or post-exposure (adjusted P=.1791). A significant increase in cortisol levels occurred from pre-exposure to post-exposure for the MDD group (LSM increase, 0.06 [SE, 0.02]; adjusted P=.0216) but not for the healthy control group (LSM decrease, −0.01 [SE, 0.01]; adjusted P=.5729). Greater cortisol levels represent a greater stress response. LSM indicates least squares mean; MDD, major depressive disorder. Figure 1B. Adjusted LSM for Amylase. In this linear mixed model, LSMs were adjusted for age, sex, pre-exposure social media addiction score, and pre-exposure cyberbullying score. Error bars indicate standard error. No significant group differences were observed at pre-exposure (adjusted P=.2292) or post-exposure (adjusted P=.5756). A significant increase in amylase levels occurred from pre-exposure to post-exposure for the MDD group (LSM increase, 38.58 [SE, 13.92]; adjusted P=.0216) but not for the healthy control group (LSM increase, 7.83 [SE, 8.85]; adjusted P=.5064). Greater amylase levels (U/mL) represent greater stress response. LSM indicates least squares mean; MDD, major depressive disorder.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effect of Social Media Use on Salivary Cortisol and α-Amylase Levels (©2020 Anosha Zanjani; used with permission). A brief period of social media use increased salivary markers of stress in depressed adolescents. Salivary cortisol is an index of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation and noradrenergic activity. Salivary α-amylase is an indirect measure of sympathetic-adreno-medullary activity and central norepinephrine activity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Anderson M and Jiang J 2018. Teens, Social Media and Technology 2018 Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-techn...
    1. Andreassen CS, Torsheim T, Brunborg GS, Pallesen S 2012. Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale. Psychol Rep, 110: 501–17. - PubMed
    1. Banyai F, Zsila A, Kiraly O, Maraz A, Elekes Z, Griffiths MD, Andreassen CS, Demetrovics Z 2017. Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample. PloS One, 12: e0169839. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Benjamini Y and Hochberg Y 1995. Controlling the False Discovery Rate: A Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series B (Methodological), 57: 289–300.
    1. Bernstein IH, Rush AJ, Trivedi MH, Hughes CW, Macleod L, Witte BP, Jain S, Mayes TL Emslie GJ 2010. Psychometric properties of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology in adolescents. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res, 19: 185–94. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources