Likes, Shares, and Symptoms: The Hidden Toll of Early Adolescents’ Social Media Use on Well-Being

Social media use has rapidly increased over the past decade, especially among young people. To obtain more insight into the potential negative associations with problematic social media use in Dutch early adolescents, we assessed its relation to self-reported well-being. We conducted a cross-sectional study with 585 students in their final year of primary school (11–12 years old) who completed a questionnaire during school hours. We examined the association between problematic social media use and psychosomatic complaints, as well as general life satisfaction and whether perceived social support and sex moderated these associations. Problematic social media use was associated with lower general life satisfaction, as well as all psychosomatic complaints, with the strongest association for having a bad mood or feeling irritated (OR = 3.08, 99% CI = 2.05–4.63). Most associations were not moderated by perceived social support or sex. Our findings indicate that the well-being of early adolescents may be affected by problematic social media use already in primary school. The association persisted regardless of the amount of perceived social support, and without strong gender differences. This suggests that the potential for limiting the potential negative consequences of problematic social media use through increasing social support is limited.