NYAPRS Note: Children and adolescents in New York and throughout the nation face unique mental health challenges due to prolonged isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the adverse effects of social media use. According to a recent CDC Study, a little over 1 in 5 children have considered suicide in the last year. The U.S. Surgeon General has been raising the alarm about the state of our youth’s mental health, and recently released a report on social media and it’s effects on youth mental health. Offering more services and strategies to address youth’s needs has been a focus of Governor Hochul’s mental health agenda. Last week, NYAPRS staff and members were invited to attend the Governor’s Youth Mental Health Summit in New York City, where we joined other experts, providers, educators, parents, government officials, youth, and others to discuss how we can all come together to improve the mental health outcomes for youth in the state. This event, along with a report from the state’s youth listening sessions, offered collaborative solutions to address the youth mental health crisis, including providing adolescents with more peer services and training on best practices for social media use. While this is just the start, NYAPRS is happy to join the Governor, educators, parents, youth, and countless other stakeholders in the work to improve mental health services for youth and throughout the lifespan. See below for more information on the Governor’s efforts and recent research on social media use’s effects on youth mental health.
Pandemic Struggles are Example of Need to Invest in Mental Health, Governor Says
By Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square | Jun 19, 2023
Lasting effects on youth due to isolation from the pandemic is a key reason to invest in mental health, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says.
“The isolation and uncertainty we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact young people, who navigated key developmental milestones during this unstable time,” Hochul said.
The governor released a report on the youth mental health crisis following a state-wide listening tour to better understand the issues plaguing youth and identify potential strategies to combat the crisis. The Youth Listening Tour was held in spring throughout counties in the state, gathering information on challenges and recommendations regarding youth mental health. The report was released during New York’s inaugural summit on youth mental health, with mental health advocates, law enforcement, educators and parents participating.
“The era of ignoring and underinvesting in mental health is over – it is time for us to be the agents of change that our children so desperately need at this moment,” said Hochul.
The summit addressed several topics, including the impact of the pandemic, the risks and benefits of social media, peer relationships, privacy issues among youth and accountability issues. Participants at the summit made several recommendations, including “investing in community-based resources” focusing on recreation and promoting mental wellness, “youth-vetted” led social media training and navigation and increased access to mental health resources offered at no or low cost.
The summit concluded just as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data from 2021 showing the suicide rate for youth between the ages of 10-24 is the highest in 20 years. The CDC found a troubling trend among teen girls contemplating suicide has risen 19% over the last 10 years.
Hochul said, “I am proud to convene this historic summit bringing together the brightest minds in the world to share ideas, hear the experiences of our youth, and continue to drive this important conversation forward.”
New Evidence on Adolescent Mental Health and Social Media
The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research | Psychology Today | June 8, 2023
What you need to know about new guidelines on youth and social media.
A sweeping new advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General outlines the best available evidence on how social media is affecting the mental health of youth in the United States. Although the report acknowledges that young people can benefit from social media use, it also highlights evidence demonstrating that social media has “a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
Here’s what we know:
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Social media use is prevalent among young people. More than 90% of youth ages 13–17 report using social media and more than a third say they use it “almost constantly.” Among younger adolescents, nearly 40% of children ages 8–12 use social media, according to the evidence.
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Many factors determine how social media influence youth. These include how much time children spend on platforms, the type of content they engage with, the interactions they have with other users, and how much their social media use disrupts other healthy activities.
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Social media can provide positive community, connection, and social support for youth, especially those who are marginalized. Evidence demonstrates social media may support the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, transgender, queer, and intersex youths by helping them connect with peers and develop their identities. More than half of adolescents report that social media helps them feel more accepted and provides a support system—and 80% say it helps them to feel more connected to their friends’ lives.
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Data demonstrates that social media can harm mental health as well. A longitudinal study of nearly 7,000 youth ages 12-15 found that adolescents who spent more than three hours per day on social media doubled their risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety. Smaller studies demonstrate that limiting social media use leads to significant improvement in depression symptoms, especially for those with more severe symptoms. One study of more than 14,000 14-year-olds found that increased social media use predicted poor sleep, online harassment, poor body image, low self-esteem, and increased risk of experiencing depression; girls were more likely to be negatively affected compared to boys.
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Social media provides youth with access to harmful content. Systematic reviews demonstrate that social media can expose youth to self-harm and may help to normalize those behaviors. Another meta-analysis found a significant relationship between social media use, body image concerns, and eating disorders. Nearly half of adolescents ages 13-17 report that social media makes them feel worse about their own body image. Another review found a significant relationship between cyberbullying and depression among youth; girls and sexual minority youth were most affected.
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Excessive use of social media may prevent youth from engaging in other healthy behaviors. There is evidence that social media can become compulsive; small studies show people who use it excessively have changes in their brain structures similar to those with substance abuse disorders and gambling addictions. A large systematic review found that excessive social media is related to poor sleep quality, reduced sleep duration, and depression among youth. The evidence is clear that poor sleep among adolescents is linked to altered neurological development, depressive symptoms, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
The available evidence leaves a myriad of unanswered questions about youth and social media. Even still, the report offers these recommendations for parents to help buffer the negative consequences of social media use among kids:
Create a family media plan that promotes open discussion and sets up rules for social media use. These may include balancing time spent online with other activities, creating boundaries about acceptable content, and teaching youth not to disclose personal information online.
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Establish technology-free time such as evenings before bedtime, family meal times, and playdates with friends to encourage in-person interactions.
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Model responsible behavior when using social media platforms.
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Teach children the benefits of social media and encourage them to make healthy connections online.
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Discuss the ways your child could report cyberbullying, online abuse, and exploitation. If your child encounters any of these situations, provide support without judgment.
It’s important to remember that social media has drawbacks and positive aspects, said Amanda Purington, the director of evaluation and research for ACT for Youth, an organization at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research that supports healthy youth development. “Though the news stories about this Advisory often focus on the risks of social media, parents and other adults working with youth should read beyond the headlines about the Surgeon General’s Advisory. There are both possible risks and benefits to adolescent social media use,” she said, “and there are actionable steps you can take to help the young people you care about learn about potential pitfalls and help prepare them to use social media in ways that are safe, positive, prosocial, and fun.”
Purington is also a researcher with the Cornell Social Media Lab, where she helped to develop and evaluate an online educational program for middle school students called Social Media TestDrive. The program is designed to teach people good digital citizenship through practice scenarios.
The take-home message: There is clear evidence that social media use can become harmful for young people. It’s important to take steps to help prevent social media use from harming your child’s mental health.
New Evidence on Adolescent Mental Health and Social Media | Psychology Today
Cutting Back on Social Media May Improve Mental Health of College Students, Study Says
Cara Murez | HealthDay News | June 21, 2023
Cutting back social media to a spare 30 minutes per day could be the key to reducing anxiety, depression, loneliness and feelings of fear of missing out, researchers say.
That was true for college students in a new study who self-limited social media — often successfully and sometimes squeezing in just a bit more time — for two weeks.
“I think on the one hand, the results are kind of counterintuitive, right? If you talk to many people, they would tell you that social media is how they manage their stress, how they keep themselves entertained, how they stay connected with other people. So, I think the typical perception is that people use social media to cope,” said lead author Ella Faulhaber, a doctoral student in human-computer interaction at Iowa State University.
Faulhaber said researchers gained interesting insights when they asked participants about their experience.
“Lots of them said, ‘I had trouble at first but then I realized how much I better slept, how I actually connected more with people in real life, how I found myself keeping busy with other things,'” Faulhaber said.
The study dovetailed with recent health advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, which warned that young people’s mental health has suffered as their use of social media has surged. Faulhaber’s team worked with 230 college students, asking half to limit their social media to 30 minutes each day. They received daily reminders.
At the end, these students had significantly lower scores for depression, anxiety, loneliness and fear of missing out compared to the control group, which was not asked to limit social media. This group also had a brighter outlook on life. Faulhaber said she was excited to find that participants’ well-being improved in all these dimensions.
Even students in the self-limiting group who didn’t strictly adhere to the 30-minute limit experienced psychological benefits.
“We will never be perfect, but really putting in that effort does really make a difference,” Faulhaber said.
Allowing participants to self-limit gave them more personal accountability.
“You’re creating awareness. You’re setting a timer. Maybe you’re just becoming aware of your usage,” Faulhaber said. “I feel like most people don’t even know how much time has passed when they’re aimlessly scrolling. And we also need to keep in mind that most social media platforms have been designed or created to foster that.”
Faulhaber calls this the “age of anxiety.” Spending time with people on social media or Zoom just can’t replace in-person contact, she said.
Other research suggests that active use of social media, such as commenting on a friend’s post or sending a direct message, has fewer negative consequences than just scrolling and consuming, she said.
“To me, the takeaway is this is definitely doable,” Faulhaber said. “This experiment really shows you that if you try to limit your social media usage, it is effective and you might actually feel better.”
Psychiatrist Dr. Howard Liu, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Communications, reviewed the findings. Liu said people are social creatures, and even before the pandemic, were experiencing a lot of loneliness, as the U.S. Surgeon General has pointed out.
“I think we all ache for connection, and social media seems to offer that, but it’s not quite the same as the real thing,” he said.
Fear of missing out often makes social media difficult to put down once you’ve logged on, Liu said. He said he appreciated the real-world experiment in this study. “Half an hour is a reasonable, a pretty easy-to-remember thing: I think that was really positive,” Liu said.
“The bottom line is people seem like they’re overall just a bit happier and I think that’s important,” he added.
Although there may not be enough therapists to meet college students’ need for mental health therapy, this study offered a helpful example of what prevention could look like, Liu said. He also suggested the buddy system might work in limiting social media as a team.
In the time saved by cutting back on social media, a person could exercise, which has been shown to reduce anxiety and is good for brain health, Liu said. Exercising outdoors is even more helpful from a mental health perspective, he added. Making real-life connections with others could also be a good way to spend the reclaimed time, Liu said. That could be getting coffee with a roommate or calling a loved one on the phone, he said.
Mindfulness meditation can also be a valuable activity, even if you simply close your eyes and focus on your breathing for five minutes. Sleep can also help, Liu said, and it’s a better alternative than scrolling on the phone at bedtime, taking in light that’s interfering with the body’s circadian rhythm.
“There’s a lot of things that don’t take a whole lot of time that we could easily substitute,” Liu said.
The research was published recently in the journal Technology, Mind, and Behavior.