Social media unlikely to cause mental health problems in adolescents

teenagers on mobile phones - There is little evidence to show that teenagers in the UK who spend more time on social media have worse mental health, finds a new study by UCL researchers. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research , examined the link between social media use and mental health in more than 3,000 participants, aged between 10 and 15 years old, from the Understanding Society household survey. The World Health Organisation reports that one in seven adolescents (aged 10 - 19 years of age) experiences a mental disorder, and half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14 years. The number of young people with mental health conditions has increased over the last 20 years and social media has often been cited as one of the reasons. To assess this, researchers measured the number of hours spent on social media on a five-point scale from "none" to "seven or more hours" at the ages of 12-13 years. They then examined data on self-esteem and social connectedness (ie. having strong friendships) at the ages of 13-14, before finally assessing mental health at the ages of 14-15.