Social Media and Youth Mental Health: Does More Use Always Mean More Harm?

How does social media affect the mental health of young people, and does more use always mean more harm? Several researchers are working to find out through four pilot studies funded by Yale Child Study Center (YCSC).

The projects, announced in October 2025, are generating early findings that challenge oversimplified narratives about teen screen time. They point toward more nuanced, targeted approaches to understanding social media's harms and benefits.

Six of the researchers discussed their work and shared early findings at a hybrid event on March 10, 2026. They also described how this work fits into broader research on teen social media use.

Moving beyond an oversimplified 'more is worse' model

Rebecca Etkin, PhD, explained that it is hard to measure social and digital media use across different groups. She also spoke about the need for more research on social media use by youth with high anxiety. “Social media has become conceptualized as something almost like a toxin—in that the more of it that teens consume, the more harmful it is to them,” she said.

“Most research in the past decade has focused on trying to show this very relationship between more social media use and worse mental health outcomes in teens. But interestingly, studies have generally failed to find support for this relationship. Now, that doesn't mean, of course, that social media can't cause harm, because it certainly can, but it does suggest that this relationship has perhaps been conceptually oversimplified,” said Etkin.

In a study co-led with Eli Lebowitz, PhD, and Wendy Silverman, PhD, the team is following up with adolescents from an earlier study on social anxiety and social media usage. They are studying relationships between social anxiety and different types of social media experiences—both positive and negative—on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. They are looking at these patterns in real time and over the long term.

Using smartphone data to understand harms and benefits

Christine Cha, PhD, and Shirley Wang, PhD, are collecting smartphone data to study digital phenotyping, which helps researchers understand health and behavior by analyzing information from digital devices. Their study examines the benefits and drawbacks of social and digital media use across the lifespan.

Cha highlighted the importance of engaging with technology and considering the widespread use of digital and social media among teens. She noted potential mental health impacts and emphasized the need for thorough research.

"Likely, many of you are familiar with the U.S. Surgeon General's advisory that came out a few years back, which on the one hand, drew attention to substantial concern about the impact on mental health and well-being of young digital media users, with reports of elevated depression, anxiety, suicide risk, and eating disorders, while on the other hand, the same advisory acknowledged the possible benefits,” said Cha.

She also discussed how teens manage stress using smartphones and noted the need for targeted interventions. "One key piece to unpacking this question of harms versus benefits comes down to first acknowledging that what digital and social media use actually look like can drastically vary from person to person,” Cha noted.

Wang shared some preliminary data from the study, noting that early findings connect passive smartphone sensing data with brief real-time check-ins about mood and behavior (called ecological momentary assessment). For one participant, a spike in social media app use was associated with feeling less connected to others and having more difficulty coping with emotions.

Linking social media use, thinking skills, and brain connections—especially in youth with ADHD

Karim Ibrahim, PhD, shared early results on links among social media use, executive function (or thinking skills), and how different parts of the brain work together in young people. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, his team is measuring screen time in two ways: what teens report and what is tracked by a phone app. He described how the phone app helps sort participants into “low” and “high” social media use groups His team is also studying groups with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"Understanding how social media use impacts brain development in youth is a pressing question, especially during sensitive periods of development,” Ibrahim noted. Early findings show that teens who use more social media display different patterns in executive functioning—skills like paying attention, controlling impulses, and staying organized. These differences were stronger in young people with more behavior problems that are shown outwardly, such as aggression, frequent anger, irritability, and refusing to follow rules.

Ibrahim is also exploring whether fast-paced digital media (like TikTok and YouTube Shorts) affects brain function and connections differently in youth with and without ADHD. His team is developing a new brain-imaging task with participants watching short clips during a brain scan. This is to study how the speed and style of content might shape brain connectivity. The long-term goal is to inform evidence-based programs and policies that support healthier digital media habits and reduce cognitive, social, and emotional risks—especially for children who have ADHD.

Mapping social media use to problematic behaviors and psychiatric symptoms over time

Marc Potenza, MD, and Jennifer Park, PhD, briefly shared early findings from their study on social media use and harmful or risky behaviors. They are using ABCD study data to identify specific symptom-to-symptom interactions across four areas of concern. They want to understand how these patterns connect to ADHD, depression, and anxiety.

Potenza emphasized broader implications for mental health frameworks and future research directions. He highlighted the importance of gaining a detailed understanding of behavior and longitudinal research, which follows the same group of people over time. The team plans to lead focus groups with young people to better understand how problematic social media use affects mental health. They will explore strategies to reduce problematic use and plan to develop a toolkit to promote healthier digital behaviors.

The goals of this work are to clarify the benefits and risks of social media and to contribute to evidence-based guidance for healthy use among children and adolescents. Additional updates, findings, and insights will be shared as the studies continue.

“This is a priority for our center, and we are pleased to have launched this pilot work in four synergistic areas thanks to a generous gift from one of our associates. The progress these investigators have made in just six months is remarkable—this important science will inform clinical programs focused on digital media use,” says YCSC Chair Linda Mayes, MD.