Greater stress and depression risk for teens with lots of Facebook friends

Posted on November 23, 2015

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Social media use among teenagers has grown rapidly in recent years. According to a 2012 study from Pew Research Center, around 81% of teenagers aged 12-17 who are active online use some form of social media, and 71% of them use Facebook.

While such sites can help people stay connected, numerous studies have suggested their use may have negative health implications, particularly for adolescents. Prof. Sonia Lupien (Department of Psychiatry, University of Montreal) and colleagues find in a new study that the number of friends teenagers have on Facebook may impact stress levels. This in turn, potentially influences their later-life depression risk.

Compared with teenagers who had fewer than 300 Facebook friends, those who had more than 300 friends on the social media site had higher cortisol (a hormone released in response to stress) levels. "We can therefore imagine that those who have 1,000 or 2,000 friends on Facebook may be subjected to even greater stress," notes Prof. Lupien.

The researchers point out that participants' heightened stress levels were not purely down to Facebook; other external factors played a part. However, they estimated that Facebook was responsible for around 8% of increased cortisol levels.

Higher cortisol levels in teens may also indicate future depression risk. "[...] Adolescents who present high stress hormone levels do not become depressed immediately; it can occur later on," explains Prof. Lupien. "Some studies have shown that it may take 11 years before the onset of severe depression in children who consistently had high cortisol levels."


Category(s):Anxiety, Depression

Source material from Medical News Today