In this study, we used large-scale representative panel data to disentangle the between-person and within-person relations linking adolescent social media use and well-being. We found that social media use is not, in and of itself, a strong predictor of life satisfaction across the adolescent population. Instead, social media effects are nuanced, small at best, reciprocal over time, gender specific, and contingent on analytic methods.
Keywords: adolescents; life satisfaction; longitudinal; random-intercept cross-lagged panel models; social media.
Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.