How, not just how much: Bidirectional associations between social media use and internalizing psychopathology

Abstract

The impact of social media use on mental health is hotly debated. Considerably less research has investigated the impact of mental health on social media use. This longitudinal study aimed to bridge these gaps by examining the bidirectional relationships between Instagram (IG) and/or Facebook (FB) use and internalizing psychopathology in young adults. We considered participants’ quantity of use, as well as the cognitions and emotions they experience when using IG/FB, using both self-reported measures and observational data. Participants were 399 young adults with elevated psychopathology who were daily IG/FB users and who felt that their social media use had at least some negative impact on their lives. Every 2 weeks for 6 weeks, we measured participants’ internalizing psychopathology and multiple aspects of their IG/FB use. Analyses were conducted using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Modelling (RI-CLPM), a statistical procedure used in longitudinal data to estimate the directional pathways between one variable and a different variable across time. Using RI-CLPM we found that three different measures of higher quantity of IG/FB use (β = .08 - .32), and posting positive content (β = .28 - .40), were associated with more internalizing psychopathology at subsequent timepoints. More internalizing psychopathology was associated with making more upward social comparisons on IG/FB at subsequent timepoints (β = -.24 to -.19). There were bidirectional associations between higher internalizing psychopathology and a greater number of social comparisons at a subsequent time point (β = .14 - .16), and vice versa (β =.13 - .19). Our work highlights how young adults’ mental health may influence, and also be influenced by, different facets of social media use.