When determining what affects adolescents’ mental health the most, the amount of time spent on social media or the age at which teenagers first receive a smartphone may not be the key driving factors, according to a new study released Tuesday.
“We found that depression was higher in teens when their parents reported higher levels of personal social media use,” the authors of the study said. “Specifically, about 10% of teens are depressed when their parent uses social media at a low level, compared to nearly 40% of teens being depressed at the highest levels of parent social media use — meaning that adolescents are nearly four times as likely to be depressed if their parents are high level social media users.
“This may indirectly impact adolescent mental health and behavioral outcomes, especially if children feel like their parents invalidate their experiences by being less than present in the moment,” the study read.