Annotated Bibliography: Effect of Social Media on Teen Mental Health

Abstract

This annotated bibliography will introduce five scholarly articles regarding research on social evidence of the need of further research that needs to be done. In order to fill in the gaps additional research needs to be sufficiently demonstrated on how social media sites promotes or declines the mental health of teens. These articles will be examined and display evidence that is applicable and support the research proposal presented. Each article will display evidence that aids social media sites use for teenager’s mental health disputes social media sites usage for teenager’s mental health. Lastly, it will focus on how social media influences mental health for teenagers and whether if the outcome is positive or negative. All sources utilized will be displayed in the standard APA format as well as an examination and narrative of each article. In addition, the annotated bibliography will also provide the qualifying expertise of the author of the articles, one type of assessment that was used, and a concise explanation of purpose to the research topic.

References

1.) Barry, C. T., Sidoti, C. L., Briggs, S. M., Reiter, S. R., & Lindsey, R. A. (2017, December).

Adolescent social media use and mental health from adolescent and parent perspectives. Journal of Adolescence, 61, 1-11. 

Christopher T. Barry, who is the author has a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology. He also is a professor at Washington State University in the department of Psychology.  The main research question for this study was: “Are parent-reported symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, conduct problems, depression, and anxiety related to the reported number of adolescents’ social media accounts and the frequency with which adolescents’ report checking their social media accounts”?  (Barry et al., 2017, p. 3). Furthermore, the article provides a complete study of how parents and teenagers report of teenagers utilizing social media and how it relates to teenager’s mental health. Barry, Sidoti, Briggs, Reiter, and Lindsey utilized a sample of 226 participants consisting of 113 parent-teenager’s ratios. The teenagers ranged from the following ages 14 to 17 and does a good job utilizing this as good sample size. The subject matter examined the reports produce by teenagers and parents regarding social media usage in connection to parent who reported the following symptoms of depression, fear of missing out (FoMO), and anxiety.

 Lastly the research demonstrates the number of teenagers who have social media accounts and how often they checked their social media accounts which were positive and corresponded with teenagers-reported loneliness and parent reported symptoms of depression and anxiety in their teenage children.

2.) Best, P., Manktelow, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media,

and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 41, 27-36.

            Paul Best, who is the author of this article has a doctoral degree of Philosophy from Queen’s University Belfast. This article’s purpose is to review current empirical research regarding social technologies and the mental well being of teens. The results were the authors discovered 43 research papers and learned that most of the studies showed blended or no effects of social media used and teens mental health. The study utilized a valued appraisal tool and narrative synthesis methodology to review the articles and examine results. The specific question of the study was: What are the beneficial and harmful effects of social media amongst young people (Best et al., 2014).

        Furthermore, this research depicts the positive and negative effects on teens mental health from utilizing social media, this outcome assists me to conduct my research for social media and the effects on teen health. This article does not provide any use of psychometric results; however, the article analyzes different sources on the subject matter of social media sites and teen mental health. Although there are many sources being correlated and reviewed, there is also room for variation and different groups.

         Best et al. (2014) demonstrates that there is evidence that upholds both positive and negative effects of social media on teens well-being, however it also implies there needs to be further research enhance support to social media and teens mental health with a more suitable constructed study.

3.) O'Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Hughes, J., Reilly, P., George, R., & Whiteman, N. (2018). Potential of social media in promoting mental health in adolescents. Health Promotion International, 1-11. 

            Michelle O’Reilly, who is the author is a lecturer at the University of Leicester and is also a consultant for research at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.  This article was also managed buy the University of Leicester Research Ethics Committee. O’Reilly, Dogra, Hughes, Reilly, George, and Whiteman (2018) used focus groups supervised with teenagers, mental health professionals, and educational professionals.  A qualitative model was utilized, and participants were chosen from London and Leicester. Thematic analysis was utilized because of the data meaning-making focus (O’Reilly et al., 2018). The focus (research) question utilized was: “What are the perspectives of key stakeholders about the extent to which social media can play a role in mental health promotion?” (O’Reilly et al., 2018, p. 2).

           The research describes how three main subjects were examined:  the role of how social media and mental health develop in teenagers with utilizing social media, and the positive benefits and negative challenges of social media and mental health. Furthermore, this helps to prove that social media can have an impact on teenager’s mental health in a positive and negative way. Lastly this study does a spectacular job with breaking down  the use of males and females as well as different age groups that provide a extensive range of opinions for results regarding social media and its possible effects  The focus group  was developed around conceptualizations of social media opinions, mental health and ideas on health and social media development.

           In addition, O’Neill et al. (2018) suggested that social media can have an impact on mental health development, while also stating the need for further research need for expanded evidence base. This also assists me with my research regarding the need of research on social media and the possible effects on teenager’s mental health.

4.) O'Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018, May). Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1-13. 

Michelle O’Reilly, who is the author is a lecturer at the University of Leicester and is also a consultant for research at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. O’Reilly, Dogra, Whiteman, Hughes, Eruyar, and Reilly (2018) utilized a qualitative method, precisely a macrosocial constructionist view of six focus groups. The research question of the subject matter: “What do adolescents think of social media and its relevance to mental health and emotional wellbeing”?  (O’Reilly et al., 2018). The questions that were focused on in those focused groups were regarding the understand of mental health, the individuals personal experience from usage, and the usage of social media. In addition to examining plenty of data saturation between both focus groups and the individuals that participated. Furthermore, thematic analysis was utilized so that certain members of the team utilizes three levels of coding methods that confirmed inter coder accuracy (O’Reilly et al., 2018).

 The outcomes of the research suggest that the participants perceived social media had a negative impact for teenager’s mental health overall.  This also proves the case that researcher is further needed, and to focus on ways is social media negative and how does the negativity of social media precisely do teenager’s mental health. 

 Lastly the article focuses on how some teenagers did understanding the meaning of mental health but nor did they comprehend what the meaning of positive mental health was, this subject matter could use further research on social media’s impact on teenager’s mental health.  And to also further research on how to effectively and appropriately educate teenagers on positive mental health.

5.) Seo, H., Houston, J. B., Knight, L. A. T., Kennedy, E. J., & Inglish, A. B. (2014). Teens’ social media use and collective action. New Media & Society, 16(6), 883–902. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444813495162

Hyunjin Seo, who is the author of the article is an associate professor of strategic communication in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.  Hyunjin, Houston, Knight, Kennedy, and Inglish (2014) used a survey questionnaire specifically a macrosocial constructionist focus group with 18 teenagers which were obtained through a teen-orientated radio station. The Research Question that was posed was: How teens are using social media to facilitate planning and organizing flash mobs? (Hyunjin et al., 2014).  The questions focused on understanding how teenager’s social med usage and social psychological characteristics are related with the participants and their interested in flash mob. This research suggests that theoretical and operational evidence in the study conducted is useful for those who would be studying teenager’s behavior, group identity, and collective action. Furthermore, the findings determined that this research could help policymakers identify more effective ways to encourage teenagers in this duration of social media as well as online social networking (Hyunjin et al., 2014).