MELBOURNE — The Murdoch Children's Research Institute published findings from a ten-year longitudinal study in the Medical Journal of Australia indicating that increased social media use among adolescents aged 12 to 18 is associated with increased mental health problems one year later.

Researchers tracked approximately 1,200 children in Melbourne from ages nine to nineteen. The participants were enrolled in the Child to Adult Transition Study. Annual data collection included social media usage and mental health metrics such as depression, anxiety, wellbeing, and self-harm, gathered before social media age restrictions were implemented in Australia.

Girls aged 12 to 13 exhibited the strongest mental health impacts from social media use.

Nandi Vijayakumar, a medical researcher and academic, said: "Early adolescence stands out as a time when higher levels of social media use are linked to a greater risk of mental health problems one year on." She added: "While the increases in risk were modest in our study, even small effects can have important public health implications when large numbers of young people are exposed. This is why early adolescence may be the key time to intervene."

Courtney Blackwell, associate professor of medical social sciences, said: "Instead of just using an average time use for social media, what they were able to do is look across four years and ask how this child changed in their social media use and map that to create different groups of kids."

Jason M. Nagata, associate professor of pediatrics, said: "People are less likely to post the adverse consequences that have happened, so I think they may be getting a bias in what they're seeing."

Prior research conducted by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute showed that nearly 75 percent of Australian adolescents experience clinically reported symptoms of depression or anxiety. Most social media platforms currently maintain a minimum user age requirement of 13 years.