Grant: Project Grant

Anxiety and depression affect large numbers of youth. Social media use (SMU) is also prevalent among youth. This is concerning given high SMU is related to feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness, which may be due to unfavorable social comparisons that arise with SMU. A study done in adults found reducing SMU resulted in less emotional distress, but no studies have been done in youth. This study will test whether reducing SMU is an effective way to reduce feelings of anxiety, depression, and other symptoms in youth who are already experiencing emotional distress. We will also explore whether sex, gender or social comparisons influence the impact that the intervention has on emotional distress. We plan to recruit 216 youth aged 12-17 years who are on the waiting list for outpatient mental health services at a local children's hospital. Each participant will have an equal chance (like flipping a coin) of being assigned to the intervention group (108 youth) or to the control group (108 youth). The intervention group will receive an educational handout on tips for reducing SMU and will be required to limit SMU to 1-hour per day. Participants in the control group will receive the same educational handout but will have no limits put on their SMU. All participants will monitor their SMU daily on their smartphones and send us screenshots of their daily use. We will measure participants' symptoms of emotional distress using questionnaires that will be completed before the program, after 4 weeks of intervention, and again after 8 and 12-weeks to see if youth in the intervention group show greater reductions in emotional distress compared to those in the control group. This study may be the first to show that reducing SMU is an effective way to reduce emotional distress in a vulnerable group of youth waiting for mental health services. If this study is successful, findings would suggest that reducing SMU should be included in the treatment of distressed youth.