Applying a Gendered Lens to the Issue of Adolescent Social Media Use and Well-being; Salient Susceptibilities and Alternative Within-person Processes

Why does research find that girls demonstrate stronger, more negative associations betweensocial media use and well-being compared to boys? Applying a gendered lens to processes ofsocial media and adolescent well-being, this study empirically examined two commonexplanations for gendered patterns in these processes; differences between the experiences andcontext of boys and girls, or that girls often use social media more frequently than boys. Usingintensive longitudinal data collected from N = 97 adolescents living in the United States and aDynamic Structural Equation Modeling framework, we found limited evidence that social mediause was related to well-being, or that gendered facets of adolescents’ social context moderatedthese associations. However, we did find that two gendered facets of adolescents’ social mediaexperiences, frequency of use and unwanted exposure to sexually explicit content, were bothnegatively associated with the stability of adolescents’ sense of purpose. This finding points toalternative within-person processes, where instead of a direct causal relationship between socialmedia use and well-being, social media use and experiences are related to the stability ofadolescents’ well-being.