Associations between social media use, psychological stress, well-being, and alpha-amylase levels in adolescents

Abstract

Despite abundant research on positive and negative consequences of social media use (SMU) in adolescence, concomitant examinations of subjective and objective measures of stress or well-being, and SMU following theory-based, conceptual models of digital stress are rare.  In a cross-sectional study, we examined the associations between current subjective stress (self-report; PSS-10), objective stress (salivary alpha-amylase), self-reported well-being, and SMU in 76 German adolescents (52% male; M_age = 13.73 years). Zero-order correlations and block wise hierarchical regression models examined incremental validity of SMU in predicting stress and well-being (physical, emotional) beyond sociodemographic covariates, and loneliness.  Models explained up to 50% (emotional well-being) of variance in self-reported outcomes, with significant incremental values of problematic SMU (?R² = .12) for emotional well-being, and subjective stress (?R² = .11). In addition, stress was associated with facets of digital stress, namely objective stress and perceived connection overload (i.e., at least daily SMU) (?=.25, p<.05), subjective stress and approval anxiety (?=.22, p<.05).  The findings support the digital stress framework of SMU in adolescents suggesting differential pathways of SMU towards subjective and objective stress, and (emotional) well-being. The study underlines the need for a nuanced debate and multi-method assessment in the study of social media use and stress in adolescents.