IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_11563.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Rise of Social Media and the Fall in Mental Wellbeing Among Young Australians

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Leigh
  • Stephen Robson

Abstract

Using multiple sources, we document a substantial worsening in the mental wellbeing of Australians aged 15-24, as measured by surveys, self-harm hospitalisations and suicide deaths. The shift began around 2007-2010 and is worse for young women than for young men. While several factors could be to blame, we present six pieces of evidence suggesting that smartphones and social media may have played a causal role in damaging the mental health of young Australians.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Leigh & Stephen Robson, 2024. "The Rise of Social Media and the Fall in Mental Wellbeing Among Young Australians," CESifo Working Paper Series 11563, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11563
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp11563.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luca Braghieri & Ro'ee Levy & Alexey Makarin, 2022. "Social Media and Mental Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3660-3693, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Clemente Pignatti & Zachary Parolin, 2024. "The effects of an unconditional cash transfer on parents' mental health in the United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(10), pages 2253-2287, October.
    2. Kovacic, Matija & Orso, Cristina Elisa, 2024. "Adverse childhood experiences and social media use in adulthood. Evidence from a novel EU survey," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1531, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    3. Renhui Fu & Fang Gao & Yi Zhao, 2024. "The capital market consequences of stock market liberalisation: Evidence from Mainland‐Hong Kong Stock Connect Programs in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3275-3299, December.
    4. Kai Barron & Tilman Fries, 2023. "Narrative Persuasion," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 469, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Cowan, Benjamin & Jones, Todd R. & Swigert, Jeffrey, 2024. "Parental and Student Time Use Around the Academic Year," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 66-110.
    6. Angelo D’Andrea & Patrick Hitayezu & Mr. Kangni R Kpodar & Nicola Limodio & Mr. Andrea F Presbitero, 2024. "Mobile Internet, Collateral, and Banking," IMF Working Papers 2024/070, International Monetary Fund.
    7. He, Weimin & Wang, Bin, 2024. "Environmental jurisdiction and energy efficiency: Evidence from China's establishment of environmental courts," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Chen, Jie & Mishra, Tapas & Song, Wei & Zhang, Qingjing & Zhang, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of bank mergers on corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Nora Bearth, 2024. "Beyond Baby Blues: The Child Penalty in Mental Health in Switzerland," Papers 2410.20861, arXiv.org.
    10. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1422-1474, December.
    11. Schultheiss, Tobias & Pfister, Curdin & Gnehm, Ann-Sophie & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2023. "Education expansion and high-skill job opportunities for workers: Does a rising tide lift all boats?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. TAKAHASHI Ryo & IGEI Kengo & TSUGAWA Yusuke & NAKAMURO Makiko, 2023. "The Effect of Silent Eating during Lunchtime at Schools on the COVID-19 Outbreaks," Discussion papers 23068, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    13. Andranik Tumasjan, 2024. "The many faces of social media in business and economics research: Taking stock of the literature and looking into the future," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 389-426, April.
    14. Ding, Xiangyuan & Yuan, Luoqi & Zhou, Yi, 2023. "Internet access and older adults' health: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Tang, Oupin & Shi, Xiaomeng & Jiu, Lili, 2024. "Value creation or political trick? An event study on anti-ESG regulations," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    16. Fernandes, Mario & Hilber, Simon & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Walter, Andreas, 2023. "Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    17. Kelton Minor & Esteban Moro & Nick Obradovich, 2023. "Adverse weather amplifies social media activity," Papers 2302.08456, arXiv.org.
    18. Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Fernández-Kranz, Daniel & Nollenberger, Natalia, 2022. "High Speed Internet and the Widening Gender Gap in Adolescent Mental Health: Evidence from Hospital Records," IZA Discussion Papers 15728, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Tang, Jintong & Ye, Wenping & Hu, Mingzhi & Zhang, Stephen X. & Khan, Shaji A., 2024. "The gendered effect of populism on innovation," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4).
    20. Huang, Keqi & Liu, Qiren, 2024. "Artificial intelligence and outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mental health; technology; smartphones; social media;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11563. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.