Social Media Mechanisms Affecting Adolescent Mental Health (SoMe3)

影响青少年心理健康的社交媒体机制 (SoMe3)

• 批准号: MR/X034925/1
• 负责人: Amy Orben
• 金额: $ 202.21万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX034925%2F1
• 关键词: Social; Media; Mechanisms; Affecting; Adolescent

Adolescents estimate that they spend just under 5 hours online every day. This is almost as much time as they spend at school, with the average UK school day lasting 6.5 hours. Adolescent mental health has also declined substantially over the last decade, putting large-scale pressures on UK health services, society and the economy. This has made many concerned that digitalisation is actively damaging adolescent mental health. However, we still know relatively little about whether such concerns are warranted. This is a scientific supply issue highlighted by both the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists ("We desperately need more research into the benefits and harms of technology use") and the UK Chief Medical Officers ("...more comprehensive research should be supported by health bodies and research institutions. An appropriate mechanism for measuring children's digital engagement needs to be developed...").A lot of research on digitalisation and adolescent mental health has focused on social media, a particularly high-risk digital innovation. Social media is used heavily by the adolescent population (94% of 16-17s have a social media profile) and introduces changes to the social environment that could amplify pre-existing vulnerabilities. For example, peer rejection is especially salient in adolescence, and a mental health risk factor. Social media quantifies the social feedback adolescents receive from peers through 'like' counts, which could increase the salience of social feedback such as rejection, and therefore increase mental health risk (Mechanism A). Further social media allows for continued access to peers, which is very attractive to adolescents. This can lead to habitual social media use and self-control failures that impact mental health directly and indirectly (Mechanism B). Results of research examining the link between social media use and mental ill health have however been largely inconsistent, and consensus has not moved far beyond statements that the link is complicated. This has made it very challenging to design evidence-based recommendations and interventions to address the impacts of social media across society, policy and industry (e.g., the Online Safety Bill). My fellowship will address this issue by delivering a ground-breaking portfolio of basic and applied research. My team will take a novel mechanistic approach, investigating the mechanisms underlying the impact of social media on adolescent mental health (e.g., Mechanisms A and B, among others). We will first study these mechanisms of interest using observational data across three distinct levels of scientific explanation (experiential, algorithmic, and biological/cognitive). We will then systematically manipulate them in a longitudinal study, to test their mental health impact on an individual level. This will allow us to select two targets that will be developed and deployed in Years 5-7 of the fellowship in both policy and as an intervention that allows adolescents to experiment with changing their own social media use to improve their mental health. This research will be complemented by an agile pipeline of co-investigation and knowledge exchange with policymakers and stakeholders to address current questions in policy and practice, to ensure this investment is continuously creating positive impact for young people throughout the fellowship. This will be supported by an internship scheme that recruits talented undergraduate students from backgrounds underrepresented in academic research to assist my team and policy partners on select summer project 'sprints'. In depth co-creation with young people and parents will further tailor research outputs and dissemination throughout the fellowship. The evidence provided by my fellowship will therefore feed into crucial national decisions about childhood and digitalisation that will shape the lives of our children today and adults tomorrow, for decades to come.

青少年估计他们每天上网的时间不到 5 小时。这几乎与他们在学校度过的时间一样多，英国平均每天上学时间为 6.5 小时。过去十年来，青少年心理健康状况也大幅下降，给英国医疗服务、社会和经济带来了巨大压力。这让许多人担心数字化正在严重损害青少年的心理健康。然而，我们对这种担忧是否合理仍然知之甚少。这是皇家精神病学家学院院长（“我们迫切需要对技术使用的好处和危害进行更多研究”）和英国首席医疗官（“……应该进行更全面的研究”）都强调的一个科学供应问题。需要制定衡量儿童数字化参与度的适当机制……”）。许多关于数字化和青少年心理健康的研究都集中在社交媒体上，这是一种风险特别高的数字创新。青少年群体大量使用社交媒体（16-17 岁的人中有 94% 拥有社交媒体资料），并给社会环境带来变化，可能会放大已有的脆弱性。例如，同龄人的拒绝在青春期尤为突出，并且是一个心理健康风险因素。社交媒体通过“点赞”计数量化青少年从同龄人那里收到的社会反馈，这可能会增加拒绝等社会反馈的显着性，从而增加心理健康风险（机制 A）。更多的社交媒体允许继续与同龄人接触，这对青少年非常有吸引力。这可能会导致习惯性使用社交媒体和自我控制失败，从而直接和间接影响心理健康（机制 B）。然而，有关社交媒体使用与精神疾病之间联系的研究结果在很大程度上不一致，而且共识也没有超出这种联系很复杂的说法。这使得设计基于证据的建议和干预措施来解决社交媒体对社会、政策和行业的影响（例如《在线安全法案》）变得非常具有挑战性。我的奖学金将通过提供突破性的基础和应用研究组合来解决这个问题。我的团队将采用一种新颖的机制方法，研究社交媒体对青少年心理健康影响的潜在机制（例如机制 A 和 B 等）。我们将首先使用科学解释的三个不同层次（经验、算法和生物/认知）的观察数据来研究这些感兴趣的机制。然后，我们将在纵向研究中系统地操纵它们，以测试它们对个人水平的心理健康影响。这将使我们能够选择两个目标，这些目标将在奖学金的第 5-7 年制定并部署在政策和干预措施中，使青少年能够尝试改变自己的社交媒体使用方式，以改善他们的心理健康。这项研究将得到与政策制定者和利益相关者的联合调查和知识交流的灵活渠道的补充，以解决当前政策和实践中的问题，以确保这项投资在整个奖学金期间不断为年轻人创造积极影响。这将得到实习计划的支持，该计划招募来自学术研究领域代表性不足的有才华的本科生，以协助我的团队和政策合作伙伴进行选定的夏季项目“冲刺”。与年轻人和家长的深入共同创造将进一步定制研究成果并在整个奖学金中传播。因此，我的研究金提供的证据将被纳入有关儿童和数字化的重要国家决策中，这些决策将塑造我们今天的孩子和明天的成年人以及未来几十年的生活。