Can an equal world reduce problematic social media use? Evidence from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study in 43 countries

ABSTRACT

Research on the social determinants of Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) among adolescents is scant and focused on proximal contexts and interpersonal relationships. This study examines the relation of PSMU with economic inequality, measured at country, school and individual levels. It also evaluated the moderating role of family and peer support in these associations. The 2017/18 Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study measured PSMU in 179,049 adolescents aged 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in 43 countries and sub-regions of Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia) and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Wales). Associations between inequality and PSMU were tested using multilevel logistic regression analyis. Results showed that adolescents who were relatively more deprived than their schoolmates and attended more economically unequal schools had a higher likelihood of reporting PSMU. In addition, school wealth inequality was more closely related to PSMU among adolescents with lower levels of peer support. A similar effect of country income inequality was found, but only in adolescents who reported low family support. Our findings expand the existing literature on the detrimental impact of inequalities in different social contexts on adolescent wellbeing by showing the role of inequalities in the engagement in PSMU.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• problematic social media use
• inequality
• relative deprivation
• social support
• HBSC

Acknowledgements

Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) is an international study carried out in collaboration with WHO/EURO. The International Coordinator was Jo Inchley (University of Glasgow) for the 2017/2018 survey. The Data Bank Manager was Oddrun Samdal (University of Bergen). The 2017/2018 survey included in this study were conducted by the following principal investigators in the 44 countries and regions: Albania (Gentiana Qirjako), Armenia (Sergey G. Sargsyan), Austria (Rosemarie Felder-Puig), Azerbaijan (Gahraman Hagverdiyev), Belgium (Flanders: Bart De Clercq, Wallonia: Katia Castetbon), Canada (William Pickett, Wendy Craig and [the late] John Freeman), Croatia (Ivana Pavic Simetin), Czech Republic (Michal Kalman), Denmark (Mette Rasmussen), England (Fiona Broks, Ellen Klemera), Estonia (Leila Oja, Katrin Aasvee), Finland (Jorma Tynjälä), France (Emmanuelle Godeau), Georgia (Lela Shengelia), Germany (Matthias Richter), Greece (Anna Kokkevi), Hungary (Agnes Németh), Iceland (Arsaell M. Arnarsson), Ireland (Saoirse Nic Gabhainn), Israel (Yossi Harel-Fisch), Italy (Alessio Vieno), Kazakhstan (Shynar Abdrakhmanova and Valikhan Akhmetov), Lithuania (Kastytis Smigelskas), Latvia (Iveta Padule), Luxembourg (Helmut Willems), Malta (Charmaine Gauci), the Netherlands (Gonneke Stevens and Saskia van Dorsselaer), Norway (Oddrun Samdal), Poland (Joanna Mazur and Agnieszka Małkowska-Szkutnik), Portugal (Margarida Gaspar de Matos), Republic of Moldova (Galina Lesco), Romania (Adriana Baban), Russian Federation (Anna Matochkina), Scotland (Jo Inchley), Serbia (Jelena Rakic), Slovakia (Andrea Madarasova Geckova), Slovenia (Helena Jericek), Spain (Carmen Moreno), Sweden (Petra Lofstedt), Switzerland (Marina Delgrande-Jordan and Hervé Kuendig), Turkey (Oya Ercan), Ukraine (Olga Balakireva), and Wales (Chris Roberts).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are available upon request at: https://www.uib.no/en/hbscdata.

Notes

1 Analyses syntaxes are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF) at https://osf.io/t3ha8/?view_only=1af8de7cb9d542b2935d87a74ffe769b.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michela Lenzi

Michela Lenzi received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Social Psychology from the University of Padova, Italy, in 2011. She currently works as Associate Professor at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology at the University of Padova, where she teaches ‘Psychology of well-being’ and ‘Community Psychology’. Her main research interests include socioeconomic inequalities, extreme marginalization and homelessness. In particular, her research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of homeless services in promoting users’ recovery and well-being. Other research interests include: neighborhood social capital and civic engagement, contextual determinants of well-being and health behaviors in adolescence [email: [email protected]].

Frank J. Elgar

Frank J. Elgar is a developmental psychologist and professor of psychiatry in the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University and holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Inequalities in Child Health. Using theories and methods from health psychology and epidemiology, his research examines social patterns in child and adolescent health in relation to poverty, economic inequality, school violence and food insecurity [email: [email protected]].

Claudia Marino

Claudia Marino is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology at the University of Padova, Italy. She is visiting researcher at the Centre for Addictive Behaviors Research, London South Bank University, UK. Her research interests include problematic Internet use among adolescents and (young) adults (i.e., social media, online gaming, cyberchondria, cybervictimization); addictive behaviors (i.e., alcohol use, smoking); metacognitive tenet; and evaluation of preventive programs (i.e., mentoring programs, school-based programs about positive use of technology and cyberbullying) [email: [email protected]].

Natale Canale

Natale Canale is an Assistant Professor of Prevention and Health Promotion at the Department of Developmental and Social Psychology (University of Padova). His main area of research regards the psychological factors (personality, cognitive, affective, motivational, interpersonal) involved in the etiology of addictive behaviors (mostly gambling disorder in young people). Other research interests include the effect of emerging technologies on human behavior [email: [email protected]].

Alessio Vieno

Alessio Vieno, received his Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Lecce, Italy. Currently holds a position as Associate Professor in Community Psychology at the University of Padova, Italy. Research interests include alcohol use and abuse and psychosocial adjustment among adolescents. He is a member of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) since 2009 and of the European Association of Research on Adolescence (EARA) since 2008. Since 2000 he is member of the international research groups coordinated by the World Health Organization ‘Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC)’, and from 2017 became PI for Italy. He serves as a reviewer for various international and national scientific journal (e.g., Journal of Environmental Psychology, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, American Journal of Community Psychology, Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, Italian Journal of Public Health, Journal of Adolescent Research, Medical Science Monitor, Stress and Health). Since 2002 he published more than 200 scientific articles in an international and national journals [email: [email protected]].

Paola Berchialla

Paola Berchialla is an Associate Professor in Biostatistics at the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences (University of Torino). She holds a PhD in Applied Statistics, has participated to several projects developing expertise in working on analysis of clinical trials data and machine learning. Extensive collaborations with clinicians have leaded her to work on risk assessment in a clinical setting, developing expertise in predictive modeling. Her research activity is focused on Bayesian Design for clinical trials and Machine Learning applied to epidemiological research and clinical decision support. She works with several national and international institutes, such as the University of Padova (Italy), Institute of Cancer Research and Treatment of Candiolo (Torino, Italy), University of Modena, the Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers (INSERM, Paris, France) and since 2018 she is involved as project member in the Health Behavior School-aged Children International Study conducted in collaboration with the WHO. She has worked on projects funded by the European Food Safety Authority, the DG SANCO European Commission and the European Space Agency. She is the author of more than 200 papers in international journals [email: [email protected]].

Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens

Gonneke W. J. M. Stevens is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University. Her research focusses on adolescent mental wellbeing and the extent to which, why and when adolescent mental wellbeing varies across proximal and distal contexts. These contexts range from young peoples’ socioeconomic position and immigration background, family and peer relationships, the school, neighborhood and country context [email: [email protected]].

Meyran Boniel-Nissim

Meyran Boniel-Nissim, PhD, is a senior lecturer and researcher at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Kinneret Academic College, Sea of Galilee, Israel; and a chair of the Peer Culture and Leisure Time Focus Group, and chair of the Electronic Media Communication Writing Group, in the HBSC-WHO research program. Her main research topics are cyber-counselling, online risk behaviors (cyberbullying, problematic internet use, cults, pornography), and a healthy lifestyle in the digital age [email: [email protected]].

Regina J. J. M. van den Eijnden

Regina J. J. M. van den Eijnden is an Associate Professor at the Social Science Department of the University of Utrecht. Her main interest is in research on the development and consequences of adolescent compulsive online behaviors, such as problematic social media use, online gaming, and online porn use. She (co-) authored over 200 international (peer-reviewed) research articles and over 50 research reports (H-index 46) [email: [email protected]].

Nelli Lyyra

Nelli Lyyra is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research is focused on adolescent mental health, loneliness, social media use, and health promotion in the school context [email: [email protected]].