After 3 years in the making, our Registered Report is out in @nathumbehav.nature.com! We analyse nationally representative UK data from 3,340 adolescents (aged 11–19) to examine how social media use differs between those with and without mental health conditions. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What's new? 🧠 Beyond single questionnaires: Trained clinical raters conducted in-depth interviews with adolescents and parents to identify mental health conditions. 📱 Beyond screen time: We include seven qualitative dimensions of social media use (e.g., social comparison, honest self-disclosure).

What do we find? (1/4) 1️⃣Adolescents with any vs. no mental health condition reported: - More time spent. - Less happiness with the number of their online friends.

What do we find? (2/4) 2️⃣ Adolescents with internalising (e.g, anxiety and depression) vs. no condition reported: - More time spent. - More social comparison. - More lack of control over time spent. - More impact of feedback on mood. - Less happiness with friends. - Less honest self-disclosure.

What do we find? (3/4) 3️⃣Adolescents with externalising (e.g, ADHD and conduct problems) vs. no condition reported: - More time spent. - More impact of feedback on mood.

What do we find? (4/4) 4️⃣ When only considering adolescents with mental health conditions, those with internalising vs. externalising conditions reported: – More social comparison. – Less happiness with their number of online friends.

💡Our results show that adolescents with clinical-level mental health symptoms, especially those with internalising conditions, engage with social media in distinct ways.

❗The data is cross-sectional, so we can’t draw conclusions about causality, including the effects of social media use on mental health conditions or vice versa. ⏭️ These findings offer initial insights for clinical practice and future research on social media use in youth clinical groups.

🙏 Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors for this big team effort: @amandaferg.bsky.social @shuhbillskee.bsky.social @tamsinford.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social