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Does Social Media Impact Adolescent Mental Health?

NCT06049888 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 500

Last updated 2025-06-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The mental health of adolescents in the United States has seen a steep decline since 2011, roughly coinciding with the increasing popularity of social media and smartphones. But does social media have a causal impact on the mental health of adolescents or are concerns about the effect of social media on kids a form of public hysteria? In this study, the investigators will conduct the first field experiment in 11-14-year-olds to examine whether, how, and for whom social media harms mental health.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Restricted Social Media

Participants (N = 500) will be randomly assigned to either have no study-imposed restrictions on social media use (naturalistic social media condition) or have no access to social media apps on their phones (restricted social media condition). This manipulation will last three months, after which both groups will have no study-imposed restrictions on social media for three more months.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)

    collaborator NIH

  • Georgetown University

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
10 Years
Max Age
14 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-09-29
Primary Completion
2027-11-30
Completion
2028-02-29

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06049888 on ClinicalTrials.gov