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research-article2018
CPXXXX10.1177/2167702618771979MarinoLetter to the Editor
Letter to the Editor
Quality of Social-Media Use May Matter
More Than Frequency of Use for
Adolescents’ Depression
To the Editor:
Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, and Martin (2018) have dis-
cussed the increase in depressive symptoms among
adolescent girls after 2010 and how it may be related,
among other factors, to the increased amount of time
spent on new media, especially social media. The
authors reported interesting but small links between
electronic-device use and suicide-related outcomes.
Even smaller correlations between social-media use and
depression emerged.
Substantial research exists on the relations between
frequency of Internet use and youths’ mental health.
However, it is crucial to distinguish between frequent
social-media use and problematic use, because the
amount of time spent online is not necessarily indicative
of problematic use. Although social-media addiction has
not yet been recognized as a legitimate disorder, use of
social media can become problematic and can be char-
acterized by addiction-type symptoms.
Most studies on problematic social-media use con-
ducted in the past decade have focused on problematic
Facebook use (PFU). In a recent meta-analysis (Marino,
Gini, Vieno, & Spada, 2018a), we found a medium posi-
tive correlation between PFU and depression, r = .35,
95% confidence interval, or CI = [.30, .41], and a nega-
tive correlation between PFU and life satisfaction, r =
–.19, 95% CI = [–.29, –.08]. Some studies failed to report
separate effects for girls and boys, and thus we could
not test for gender differences in these links. However,
another meta-analysis (Marino, Gini, Vieno, & Spada,
2018b) showed that female participants tended to have
higher levels of PFU than male participants, Cohen’s d =
0.15, 95% CI = [.07, .24]. Moreover, the correlation
between PFU and time spent online, r = .32, 95% CI =
[.28, .36], confirmed that problematic use of social
media is linked with, but is not identical to, the fre-
quency of use.
Little is known about how problematic use of social
media interacts with other risk factors (e.g., lack of
face-to-face interaction skills or of social support) that
may make youths more likely to use new technologies
in an unsafe manner or worsen the negative effects of
problematic use. Interpersonal theories of depression
Clinical Psychological Science
2018, Vol. 6(4) 455
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/2167702618771979
https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702618771979
www.psychologicalscience.org/CPS
describe a complex interplay between individual char-
acteristics and social experiences in a social world that,
over the past decade, has been dramatically trans-
formed by the pervasive adoption of social technolo-
gies. It is of paramount importance to explore specific
online behaviors that may clarify for which individuals
associations with depressive symptoms may be more
present.
Claudia Marino
Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della
Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova
Author Contributions
C. Marino is the sole author of this article and is responsible
for its content.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest
with respect to the authorship or the publication of this
article.
References
Marino, C., Gini, G., Vieno, A., & Spada, M. M. (2018a). The
associations between problematic Facebook use, psycho-
logical distress and well-being among adolescents and
young adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Journal of Affective Disorders, 226, 274–281. doi:10.1016/j
.jad.2017.10.007
Marino, C., Gini, G., Vieno, A., & Spada, M. M. (2018b). A
comprehensive meta-analysis on Problematic Facebook
Use. Computers in Human Behavior, 83, 262–277. doi:
10.1016/j.chb.2018.02.009
Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N.
(2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-
related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. ado-
lescents after 2010 and links to increased new media
screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6, 3–17.
doi:10.1177/2167702617723376
Corresponding Author:
Claudia Marino, Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della
Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy
E-mail: claudia.marino@phd.unipd.it