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Early Literature on Adolescent Social Media Use, Substance Use, and Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented changes in daily life that impacted health among all populations, including adolescents. We conducted a scoping review of early literature (through June 20, 2021) on adolescent social media use, substance use, and depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Further, we summarized key findings and recommendations regarding study design and reporting for researchers in future public health emergencies.

Recent Findings

We identified 29 studies that met the criteria for inclusion, a majority of which reported on depressive symptoms and/or suicidality among adolescents (n=22), with fewer on social media use (n=7) and substance use (n=4). Prevalence of social media use and depressive symptoms was high. Longitudinal assessments indicate elevated depressive symptoms in the first month of the pandemic, but decreases in the few months following. Findings for substance use were varied, but two studies found lower e-cigarette use. Broadly, studies presented heterogenous measures of key constructs and this was particularly evident for depressive symptoms.

Summary

Our review highlights the critical need to use validated measures, leverage ongoing longitudinal studies, and focus on salient health risk behaviors in future studies addressing public health emergencies.

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Data Availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Funding

This work was supported in part by a student project stipend from the Northwest Public Health Training Center at the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice (sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (grant # 6 UB6HP31690-04–01)) and by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant #T76MC00011. REDCap at ITHS is supported by the National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1 TR002319. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Miranda L. M. Delawalla  & Isaac C. Rhew

  2. Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Ruchi Tiwari

  3. Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, WA, USA

    Yolanda N. Evans

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Yolanda N. Evans

  5. Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Isaac C. Rhew & Daniel A. Enquobahrie

  6. Department of Health Systems and Population Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Daniel A. Enquobahrie

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Contributions

M.D. and R.T. conducted scoping review procedures. M.D. wrote the main main manuscript text and prepared tables and figures. All authors (M.D., R.T., Y.E., I.R., and D.E.) reviewed the manuscript and contributed to interpretation of review findings.

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Correspondence to Miranda L. M. Delawalla .

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Delawalla , M.L.M., Tiwari, R., Evans, Y.N. et al. Early Literature on Adolescent Social Media Use, Substance Use, and Depressive Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review. Curr Pediatr Rep 12, 11–23 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40124-024-00313-x

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