Social media use and anxiety in emerging adults
Introduction
Anxiety is common among U.S. adults, with emerging adulthood representing a high-risk period for the onset of several anxiety disorders (Kessler et al., 2012). Anxiety disorders represent the second leading cause of disability among all psychiatric disorders, with the burden peaking during emerging and early adulthood (Whiteford et al., 2013). At the individual level, anxiety disorders are associated with significant psychiatric and medical comorbidities and role impairments in occupational and social domains (Costello et al., 2005). Societal costs are also extensive, as the annual U.S. expenditures from anxiety disorders are estimated to exceed $42–47 billion (Whiteford et al., 2013). Given the substantial burden attributable to anxiety disorders, increasing knowledge on factors associated with anxiety in emerging adults is crucial to enhancing developmental risk models and developing novel interventions.
Social media, which refers to internet applications that enable users to generate and exchange content with others (e.g., Facebook; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010), has become central to the lives of emerging adults. Approximately 90% of young adults use social media, with the majority using two or more social media sites and visiting these sites daily (Perrin, 2015). The ubiquity of social media in the lives of emerging adults has led to an increasing interest in understanding the impact of social media on their psychological adjustment. Social media may serve as a key context through which emerging adults negotiate important developmental tasks, including identity development and maintaining social connections (Moreno and Whitehill, 2014). Advancements in identity formation and increases in social support achieved through social media use may enhance psychological well-being. However, social media use has the potential to function as a source of stress or reinforce negative self-evaluations when individuals receive undesirable feedback from others or engage in negative social comparisons (Nesi and Prinstein, 2015). The immersive experience created by the numerous distracting features of social media sites also may facilitate avoidant coping strategies and social isolation (Moreno and Whitehill, 2014), which may promote psychopathology.
Little is known about the relationship between social media use and anxiety. One study found that individuals in a Norwegian community sample of late adolescents and adults (16–88 years) endorsing more signs of addictive social media use reported more anxiety symptoms (Schou Andreassen et al., 2016). In another study comprising mostly female (88%) U.S. undergraduates, a subset (~17%) of participants reported that using Facebook made them feel anxious, and nearly half reported delaying responses to friend requests due to anxiety (Campisi et al., 2012). Finally, one study failed to find a relationship between Facebook use frequency and ratings of worry in a small sample of young adults (Kross et al., 2013). No known studies have examined whether a broader range of social media use is related to anxiety. The homogenous and localized nature of the samples in these initial studies further limits their generalizability. The present study, therefore, aimed to investigate the association between social media use and anxiety symptomatology in a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. emerging adults. It was hypothesized that more daily social media use would be associated with elevated dispositional anxiety symptoms and more severe recent anxiety-related impairment.
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were a nationally representative sample of emerging adults (Age: M=20.00, SD=1.42 years; 50.2% female). The racial/ethnic breakdown of the sample was: 63.3% Non-Hispanic White, 13.5% African American, 12.1% Hispanic/Latino, 7.6% Asian, and 3.5% Other. The sample composition of participants’ highest level of education completed was: 4.0% less than high school, 56.4% high school, 29.5% two years of college, 8.5% four years of college, and 1.5% graduate school. The gender and
Results
Data from 563 emerging adults were included. A wide range of anxiety symptoms (M=12.21, SD=12.62; Range: 0–63) and anxiety severity (M=4.69, SD=4.78; Range: 0–20) was represented. Participants reported spending an average of 6.63 (SD=6.44) hours using social media on a typical day. Males reported higher daily social media use than females (Males: M=7.41, SD=7.31 vs. Females: M=5.86, SD=5.36 h; p=0.004). Social media use was not significantly associated with age, race/ethnicity, or educational
Discussion
The goal of the present study was to examine the association between social media use and anxiety. Findings suggested that higher daily social media use was associated with greater dispositional anxiety symptoms and an increased likelihood of having a probable anxiety disorder in a nationally representative sample of U.S. emerging adults. Although some studies have found that social media use is unrelated to worry, perceived stress, or social evaluative fears (Kross et al., 2013; Hampton et
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Funding
This work was supported by the Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Contributions
AV and KF conceptualized the aims and hypotheses for the study and conducted analyses. AV took primary responsibility for drafting the introduction, results, discussion, and tables. KF assisted with data collection and drafted the methods section. CO designed the original study as principal investigator, collected the data, and provided feedback on the conceptual direction and text of the manuscript. All authors have approved the final article.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all of the participants who dedicated their time to completing this study.
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