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BEDREHELSE-Bedre helse og livskvalitet

Mental health and well-being in adolescence. Exploring the role of social media.

Alternative title: Psykisk helse og trivsel blant ungdom. Betydningen av sosiale medier.

Awarded: NOK 11.4 mill.

This research project will investigate how activity on social media (SoMe) is related to mental health and well-being among adolescents. The research project springs from the innovation project "Helsefremmende miljø på sosiale medier" led by Bergen Municipality in collaboration with Vestland County Municipality, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The aim of the innovation project is to develop an intervention to improve adolescents' mental health and well-being based on SoMe. Both the innovation and research project work closely with adolescents, and have associated two upper secondary project schools and a resource group of adolescents. The use of SoMe as a possible risk factor for poor mental health and dissatisfaction among children and adolescents has gained a growing degree of attention in line with the sharply increasing use of SoMe. Most previous studies have focused on the frequency and amount of use, but to a small extent on other aspects SoMe. This warrants investigation, as it is likely that different use patterns are related to outcomes in different ways. Potentially important aspects include what you do, what motivates your use and experiences you have on SoMe. To shed light on this, the project developed a new SoMe-questionnaire, primarily based on focus group interviews with pupils and school employees. Together with questions about background, health behavior, mental health and well-being, two data collections was carried out in upper secondary schools in 2020 and again in 2021. The research project has two sub-goals. The first sub-goal will use questionnaire data to shed light on how different uses of SoMe are related to mental health, well-being and health behavior among adolescents (parts of this presented in more detail here: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XHJP3). The second sub-goal is to evaluate the implementation and effect of the measure developed in the innovation project.

Within a few decades, social media (SOME) has gained a significant role in our lives. In the same period, we have seen an increase in mental illness among young people. The widespread use of SOME among adolescents has been pointed to as a possible explanation, and research findings that show negative effects of SOME use receive a lot of attention in traditional media. Within the research community, however, the effect of SOME is debated. For example, contact with friends through SOME can in many cases be positive. At present, the research field is characterized by crude measures of the use of SOME (frequency and time use) and an excessive focus on potential negative effects on mental health. Most studies are cross-sectional studies precluding any conclusions about the direction of effects. Further, SOME as an arena for health-promoting initiatives is under-utilized. This collaboration project aims to remedy the shortcomings in the research field and get a more nuanced picture of what role SOME plays in young people's lives and how SOME can be used in health promotion. By building upon and expanding an on-going innovation project, we believe that we are ideally positioned to pursue these goals, by leveraging and modifying existing local collaborative structures between knowledge institutions and the county and municipal sectors. This collaboration project involves the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), Bergen Municipality (BK), and Vestland County (VLFK). The goal of the project is to ensure scientific situational analysis and evaluation of a health-promoting intervention developed in close collaboration with BK and the target group. The organization of the project group ensures a broad dissemination of results to those working directly or indirectly with adolescents. User involvement is a capstone of the project, and a group of adolescents and two project schools will be involved in refinements of the analyses and discussions of the results.

Funding scheme:

BEDREHELSE-Bedre helse og livskvalitet