Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being

Although the role of social media in youth mental health has been recently examined, how social inequalities structure the relationship between social media use and adolescent well-being across countries remains unclear. Employing a micro-macro framework, this study examines how family-level socioec...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Gracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816, Celik, Seyma
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2026
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositório:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:uabarcelona_::fef4aa77c20c4cdc17df677e3aa03167
Acesso em linha:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/327502
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639568
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Adolescent mental well-being
Cross-national research
Problematic social media use
Socioeconomic inequalities
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being
SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities
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spelling Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-beinga cross-national study on socioeconomic inequalitiesGracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816Celik, SeymaAdolescent mental well-beingCross-national researchProblematic social media useSocioeconomic inequalitiesSDG 3 - Good health and well-beingSDG 10 - Reduced inequalitiesAlthough the role of social media in youth mental health has been recently examined, how social inequalities structure the relationship between social media use and adolescent well-being across countries remains unclear. Employing a micro-macro framework, this study examines how family-level socioeconomic status (SES) and country-level income inequalities moderate the relationship between Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU)-a concept of risk-related social media use-and adolescents' psychological complaints and life satisfaction. Analyses apply mixed-effect multilevel models to data from 35 countries participating in the Health Behaviour of School Aged Children (HBSC) study (N∼145,000). Results show that PSMU is associated with higher psychological complaints and lower life satisfaction consistently across countries. Yet, these effects are stronger for low-SES adolescents than for high-SES adolescents, especially for life satisfaction. At the country level, the relationship between PSMU and poorer adolescent mental well-being is curvilinear, being larger in medium-inequality countries than in both low- and high-inequality countries. Additionally, the observed SES gaps in the association between PSMU and adolescent mental well-being persist across countries with different levels of inequality. Overall, this study shows that risk-related social media behaviours may harm low-SES adolescents more than high-SES adolescents, whereas the relationship between PSMU and adolescent mental well-being is largest in countries with medium income inequality levels.Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics 22026-01-0120262026-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/327502https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639568reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengEuropean Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 870578European Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 101089233open accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:dnet:uabarcelona_::fef4aa77c20c4cdc17df677e3aa031672026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
a cross-national study on socioeconomic inequalities
title Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
spellingShingle Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
Gracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816
Adolescent mental well-being
Cross-national research
Problematic social media use
Socioeconomic inequalities
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being
SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities
title_short Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
title_full Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
title_fullStr Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
title_full_unstemmed Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
title_sort Problematic social media use and adolescent mental well-being
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Gracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816
Celik, Seyma
author Gracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816
author_facet Gracia, Pablo|||0000-0001-8294-2816
Celik, Seyma
author_role author
author2 Celik, Seyma
author2_role author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Adolescent mental well-being
Cross-national research
Problematic social media use
Socioeconomic inequalities
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being
SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities
topic Adolescent mental well-being
Cross-national research
Problematic social media use
Socioeconomic inequalities
SDG 3 - Good health and well-being
SDG 10 - Reduced inequalities
description Although the role of social media in youth mental health has been recently examined, how social inequalities structure the relationship between social media use and adolescent well-being across countries remains unclear. Employing a micro-macro framework, this study examines how family-level socioeconomic status (SES) and country-level income inequalities moderate the relationship between Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU)-a concept of risk-related social media use-and adolescents' psychological complaints and life satisfaction. Analyses apply mixed-effect multilevel models to data from 35 countries participating in the Health Behaviour of School Aged Children (HBSC) study (N∼145,000). Results show that PSMU is associated with higher psychological complaints and lower life satisfaction consistently across countries. Yet, these effects are stronger for low-SES adolescents than for high-SES adolescents, especially for life satisfaction. At the country level, the relationship between PSMU and poorer adolescent mental well-being is curvilinear, being larger in medium-inequality countries than in both low- and high-inequality countries. Additionally, the observed SES gaps in the association between PSMU and adolescent mental well-being persist across countries with different levels of inequality. Overall, this study shows that risk-related social media behaviours may harm low-SES adolescents more than high-SES adolescents, whereas the relationship between PSMU and adolescent mental well-being is largest in countries with medium income inequality levels.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2026-01-01
2026
2026-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/327502
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639568
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/327502
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/1369118X.2026.2639568
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv European Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 870578
European Commission https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 101089233
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
collection Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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