3S-YP study (v1.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social media, Smartphone use and Self-harm in Young People
IRAS ID
269104
Contact name
Bashir Al-Hashimi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Self-harm is when somebody hurts their body as a way of coping with difficult feelings. Self-harm is becoming increasingly common in young people, particularly in adolescent females (McManus et al., 2019). The rise in self-harm has been linked to increasing use of social media and internet technology among young people (Twenge et al, 2018). However, the evidence is limited to associations with poorer mental health outcomes rather than identifying particular aspects of using these technologies that can negatively impact on mental health.
We will be investigating how use of social media and smartphones may increase the risk of self-harm in young people by exploring changes in usage in the time leading up to a self-harm episode. The information from this study will help us to understand whether there are certain behaviours that are likely to occur before a young person has an episode of self-harm. This could be used to inform new strategies to identify and ensure support is available to vulnerable young people. This could be by linking young people with crisis support or empowering young people to make changes, manage their own risks and build resilience.
We will be studying a sample of young people aged between 13-25 years old who have accessed mental health services in SE London. Young people will be invited to provide a range of information about their mental health and use of social media and smartphones that will be routinely obtained over the course of a year.
Summary of results
The researchers are still analysing the information collected in this study. So far, the researchers have published a report about the information collected at the start of the study. Young people who took part had a mean age of 19 years, were mainly female (62%) and a third identified as Black or from Mixed or Multiple ethnic backgrounds. More than 80% of young people had experienced self-harm at some point in their life and many reported symptoms of anxiety (67%), depression (70%) and difficulties sleeping (47%). Over half used social media and smartphones after midnight on weekdays (67%) and weekends (73%), and met criteria for problematic smartphone use (49%). These results suggest anxiety, depression, self-harm, sleep disturbance and excessive and problematic digital technology are common among young people accessing mental health services. Young people from YoungMinds are helping the researchers think about what they can do with the data from this study and how to share the results with other young people and parents and carers.REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/1187
Date of REC Opinion
12 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion