Identifying Relevant Dimensions to the Measurement of Adolescent Social Media Experience via Focus Groups With Young People, 2023

Panayiotou, Margarita (2024). Identifying Relevant Dimensions to the Measurement of Adolescent Social Media Experience via Focus Groups With Young People, 2023. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857173

The increased use of social media among young people has attracted the attention of the public, the media and the government, and has led to growing concerns about its impact on young people's mental health, wellbeing and levels of loneliness. This concern stems from reported increase in mental health difficulties and increased social media use among this population. Research on this area is however relatively new and with mixed evidence. While some of the experiences with social media can be challenging, there is not sufficient evidence to support that social media is fundamentally bad. Indeed, recent evidence challenges this and suggests that the connection between social media and mental health might be a weak one, and its benefits, that have been largely overlooked, should also be considered.

This area of research has suffered the consequences of a rapidly changing field, resulting in quick, but methodologically flawed self-report measures of social media experience, that hinders progress. We have identified three potential problems in the self-report measurement of social media engagement and experience:

1) Most measures were developed without asking young people's experiences. This means that social media measures are being developed for young people without young people having any input. How can we be sure we are asking the right things if we do not consider their views?; 2) Many measures focus on "addictive social media", however this term is based largely on anecdotal evidence. In fact, the questions they use in these measures are based on nicotine dependence and gambling addiction criteria. Assuming these are the same can lead to misleading conclusions; 3) Many of the existing measures were not developed using rigorous and robust theoretical and statistical (psychometric) methods. Their validity is therefore questionable; 4) Even though the engagement with social media includes objective digital behaviours, this kind of information and data have not been considered during the development of measures. We cannot capture however the full picture of social media experience without assessing both, because they each offer unique information.

To address these challenges and limitations reported in the current literature we propose a 3-year project to co-develop, with young people, a comprehensive and freely available self-report social media experience measure that will be appropriate for young people. This will take into account existing research, objective social media data, and the views of social media experts, clinicians, parents/carers, teachers, and policy makers. Importantly, the development of the measure will be guided by the views and experiences of young people.

The proposed project will follow a novel method that combines traditional methods of scale development and a novel approach that triangulates objective (e.g. online social media comments) and subjective (e.g. self-report) assessment. The current project has a strong focus on the voices of young people and it will be based on a co-production model with young people. We will draw from different disciplines including digital behaviour and social media, mental health, loneliness, psychometrics, and computer science. The project has the potential to improve the way we measure, and therefore understand, young people's social media experience and how that influences their mental health, wellbeing, and loneliness. It will also provide a meaningful and productive engagement and partnership with young people to advance this area of work and share their views to key stakeholders.

Data description (abstract)

While work on the relationship between social media use and adolescent mental health has allowed for some progress, research in this area is still relatively new and shows mixed evidence. This is partly the consequence of a rapidly changing field, resulting in conceptualisation and measurement issues that hinder progress. Given the need for robust conceptualisation, the present study included five focus groups with a total of 26 adolescents aged 11-15 in Northwest England, to understand their experiences, motivations, and perceptions of social media use, relating to mental health and wellbeing. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcripts. We developed three themes and 14 sub-themes. Young people discussed key motivations for using social media (theme 1) relating to social connections, keeping up-to-date, mood management, the ‘default’ activity, freedom to express and develop myself, and fitting in. They shared some of the benefits and positive experiences of social media use (theme 2) such as feeling connected, validation and reassurance, and enjoyment and supporting a sense of self, and finally, they talked about negative experiences of social media use (theme 3), including platform risks, loss of control, social conflict, social comparison, and self-presentation management. Our findings have contributed to our understanding of the salient dimensions and language to inform the development of an adolescent social media experience measure related to mental health.

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