A new McGill study suggests that problematic social media use among teens is in part related to broader social inequalities.
Zékai Lu, a PhD student in McGill’s Department of Sociology and author of the study, had set out to determine whether problematic social media use is driven mainly by individual traits or whether the social environment of the country a teen lives in also plays a significant role.
Lu analyzed World Health Organization data from nearly 171,500 adolescents across 41 countries. He likened the algorithm used in his analysis to a “sorting hat” that grouped teens based on their symptoms and assessed how different social and economic factors were linked to the severity of their social media use.
Clear regional patterns emerged.
Teens in Canada, the Nordic countries, and parts of Central Europe had the lowest levels of problematic social media use. In these places, only 3.4 per cent of adolescents had highly problematic behaviour, as opposed to 5.4 per cent of adolescents in a second group of Western and Central European countries, and 6.6 per cent in the third group, made up primarily of countries in Southern and Eastern Europe.
Conversely, in the first group of countries, 67 per cent of teens scored “low” for problematic social media use, compared to 57 in the second group and 41.3 per cent in the third group.
Lu then explored how the social, cultural and economic conditions that differ across these regions might contribute to these patterns.
Behaviours that resemble addiction
“Problematic social media use isn’t just about time online. It involves behaviours that resemble addiction, including withdrawal, deception and neglect of daily life,” said Lu.
While most teens who use social media are not at risk of addiction, the study found that, overall, 37.6 per cent are at moderate risk and about 4.5 per cent are at high risk and show addictionlike symptoms.
Lu’s findings suggest that societal inequities involving gender and economic hardship are strongly associated with higher risks of unhealthy online behaviour.
Adolescents, especially girls and those with fewer offline resources, are more likely to turn to social media as a low-cost escape or substitute for extracurricular activities that are not available in their everyday lives, he said. Those who spend a great deal of time in online interactions have an elevated likelihood of problematic use, the researcher suggested.
As well, for those who are relatively less affluent, seeing peers or influencers who appear better off, can heighten social comparison and status anxiety, pushing young people to seek validation through likes, comments and online engagement.
The importance of strong relationships and healthy habits
The study highlights important protective factors: Strong family relationships, supportive friendships and healthy daily habits, such as regular physical activity, significantly reduce the risk of problematic social media use, Lu said.
About the study
“Mapping adolescent problematic social media use patterns across 41 countries/regions: A multilevel latent class analysis with social determinants” by Zékai Lu was published in Addictive Behaviors