206 - Association Between Social Media Privacy Settings and Adolescent Anxiety and Depression

Publication Number: 4203.206

Aubrey Matella, Lake Forest Pediatrics, Chicago, IL, United States; Alyssa Cohen, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Background: Social media plays an increasingly dominant role in the lives of adolescents, prompting concerns regarding social media's influence on teen mental health. The association between social media and adolescent mental health is complex, bidirectional, and likely influenced by individual use patterns. Personal account privacy settings are among the behaviors that may moderate social media's impact on youth mental health. This analysis seeks to examine whether social media privacy settings are associated with clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression in adolescents.

Objective: (1) Describe associations between social media privacy settings and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms. (2) Analyze associations between privacy settings and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms across social media applications.

Design/Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from the Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellbeing (TAM) consortium Youth Health and Social Media (YHSM) Survey, fielded in fall 2021 to U.S. adolescents in English via Qualtrics. Participants (12-18 year-olds) responded to survey questions about social media use, privacy settings, depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-8 [PHQ8]) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 [GAD7]). Multivariable linear and logistic regression models controlled for sociodemographic characteristics (youth age, gender, race, ethnicity).

Results: The respondent population of 2,206 adolescents demonstrated rates of anxiety and depression similar to the national population. Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were the most popular platforms among surveyed youth (Table 1). Having an account on any social media platform except Facebook was significantly associated with higher PHQ8 and GAD7 scores in adjusted analysis (Table 2). There were no significant associations between social media privacy settings and PHQ8 or GAD7 scores among social media users in adjusted analysis (Table 3).

Conclusion(s): These findings are consistent with the extant literature in demonstrating a significant association between social media use and depression and anxiety symptoms in a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Interestingly, we did not find associations between social media privacy settings and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms. This suggests that privacy settings alone may not modify the association between social media use and negative mental health outcomes. Policymakers and tech companies should move beyond simple privacy setting restrictions in creating safe online environments for youth.

Number of teens with each social media account type


Adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of depression (PHQ-8) and anxiety (GAD-7) scores for youth with and without social media accounts, by social media application type


Adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of depression (PHQ-8) and anxiety (GAD-7) scores for youth public vs private social media accounts, by social media application type