Individual differences underlying the relationship between mental health and social media amongst adolescents

Depression and anxiety in young people (16-24 year olds) have increased by 70% in the past 25 years. One factor that may contribute to this rise is the emergence of social media, especially given that most users of social media are young people. There is currently a widespread debate as to the connection between social media use and mental health problems, but the current literature is inconclusive. This ambiguity is partly due to methodological issues in the field. For example, much of the literature relies on self-report data which is often inaccurate and uses correlational analyses which can not establish the direction of any relationship between social media and mental health.

This project will overcome these methodological issues by applying advanced methodological techniques to establish a nuanced understanding of social media-mental health relationships. Additionally, this project will deepen our understanding of the impact of social media use is to draw upon existing psychological theories. The cognitive model of psychopathology states that individuals have cognitive models which bias their processing of social information. This model is foundational to our understanding of depression and anxiety, and in this project I will seek to apply this theory to social media and see whether cognitive style impacts the interpretation of information on social media.

The objectives of my project include:

1. Exploring how the quantity and type of engagement with social media is linked to mental health outcomes over time.
2. Assessing whether individual differences in cognition modulate the relationship between social media use and mood.

In order to explore these objectives, I will conduct 2 studies. The first will be a longitudinal study In young people during which I will collect detailed data on social media use and mood in everyday life using an app downloaded to participants' mobile phones. These data will be analysed to identify patterns of use that may be protective or harmful. I will also measure social cognitive style to explore whether individual differences in cognitive style impact the relationship
between social media use and mental health. This will provide the first evidence of social cognitive style as a putative risk factor for harmful social media use using an objective measure, which could be applied to identify "at-risk" individuals in the future.

The second study will be a laboratory study in which participants will interact with a simulated social media site. This will enable me to manipulate the content that participants are exposed to and examine how their mood is impacted. During this study, participants will also have their brain activity measured using electroencephalogram (EEG) to see how emotion-related neural biomarkers are affected by the content of social media information. This study will provide novel experimental evidence of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in responses to social media.

This novel and ambitious project will provide high quality data to explore potentially important risk factors that may explain individual's vulnerability to effects of social media use. Importantly, the PhD would also provide evidence to inform the development of individualised interventions to mitigate any detrimental effects of social media.