What can we learn about social media use and depression in young adults? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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How are use of social media and depression related? A study led by Johns Hopkins child and adolescent psychiatrist Carol Vidal enrolled several hundred young adults to find out whether depressed people used more social media or if social media caused depression.

Vidal: It was a cohort of 425 adults, most of them were female and they were between the ages of 18 and 25. They were given questionnaires. We asked them about their social media use but also about other behaviors like for example how much time they spend at outdoors or whether they use cannabis or not, physical activity, and also if they tended to go to sleep later or earlier at night.                :26

Vidal says there are a lot of factors that need to be assessed when it comes to the development of depression , and there are things that are known to help, like adequate sleep and exposure to nature. The study did find an association between social media use and depression. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.