Kaitlin M. Flannery

Social media use and anxiety in emerging adults

INTRODUCTION Social media use is central to the lives of emerging adults, but the implications of social media use on psychological adjustment are not well understood. The current study aimed to examine the impact of time spent using social media on anxiety symptoms and severity in emerging adults. METHODS Using a web-based recruitment technique, we collected survey information on social media use and anxiety symptoms and related impairment in a nationally representative sample of 563 emerging adults from the U.S. (18-22 years-old; 50.2% female; 63.3% Non-Hispanic White). Participants self-reported the amount of time they spent using various social media sites on an average day, and responded to anxiety questionnaires RESULTS: Hierarchical regression revealed that more time spent using social media was significantly associated with greater symptoms of dispositional anxiety (B=0.74, 95% CI=0.59-0.90, p<0.001), but was unrelated to recent anxiety-related impairment (B=0.06, 95% CI=0.00-0.12, p=0.051), controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education level. Logistic regression also revealed that more daily social media use was significantly associated with a greater likelihood of participants scoring above the anxiety severity clinical cut-off indicating a probable anxiety disorder (AOR=1.032, 95% CI=1.004-1.062, p=0.028). LIMITATIONS Study limitations include the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-report questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS Given the ubiquity of social media among emerging adults, who are also at high risk for anxiety disorders, the positive association between social media use and anxiety has important implications for clinicians. Gaining a more nuanced understanding of this relationship will help to inform novel approaches to anxiety treatment.

The effects of age, gender, and gender role ideology on adolescents’ social perspective-taking ability and tendency in friendships

Social perspective taking (SPT; i.e., the social-cognitive process of inferring another person’s thoughts and feelings) is commonly thought to be essential for successful social relationships, yet the bulk of past work on the development of SPT does not consider youths’ tendency to engage in SPT in the context of their close relationships. The current study of adolescents (ages 12–17, N = 158) helps move the field forward by distinguishing between adolescents’ SPT ability (i.e., whether they are developmentally capable of SPT) and their tendency to apply this ability in their actual social relationships, namely, friendships, and considering the roles of gender and age. Results indicate that SPT ability and SPT tendency are distinct, suggesting that youths do not always put to use the SPT skills that they possess. Girls scored higher than boys on both SPT ability and SPT tendency. Boys and girls had significant gains in SPT ability across adolescence. Surprisingly, however, boys’ SPT tendency decreased from early to later adolescence, indicating that older boys tend to engage in less SPT in their friendships despite increasing ability to do so. This is worrisome given the importance of SPT in promoting high-quality relationships. Importantly, gender role ideology predicted this tendency in boys, such that boys with more stereotypical gender beliefs tended to engage in less SPT with their friends. Thus, the current findings point to the importance of going beyond mean-level gender differences to consider gendered beliefs and suggest that interventions aimed at promoting egalitarian views may help foster SPT and successful friendships among boys.

Family functioning and adolescent alcohol use: A moderated mediation analysis

The primary goals of this longitudinal study were to examine the relationship between family functioning and adolescent alcohol use and to examine whether depressed mood mediates this relationship. An additional goal was to explore whether these relations were moderated by gender. The sample included 1031 high school students from the Mid-Atlantic United States. Participants completed surveys in school during the spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Path analysis results indicated that family functioning predicted alcohol use for girls. Moreover, depressed mood mediated this relationship. None of the direct paths between family functioning and adolescent alcohol use were significant for boys. However, similar to girls, depressed mood negatively predicted alcohol use for boys. Taken together, the findings highlight the need for prevention programs targeting adolescent substance use to consider gender-specific trajectories.

Coping mediates the association between gender and depressive symptomatology in adolescence

Previous studies have found evidence for gender and racial/ethnic differences in depressive symptoms in adolescence; however, the mechanisms driving this relationship are poorly understood. The goal of this study was to examine the role of individual differences in dispositional coping in the relationships between gender and depressive symptomatology, and race/ethnicity and depressive symptomatology. Surveys were administered to 905 15- and 17-year-old adolescents (mean age 16.10, SD = .67; 54% girls, n = 485) in the spring of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Girls reported more depressive symptomatology than boys and endorsed a greater disposition for the following coping strategies in comparison to boys: emotional social support, instrumental social support, and venting emotions. When race/ethnicity was examined, African-American adolescents reported a greater tendency toward using religious coping than Caucasian and Hispanic adolescents. Dispositional coping preferences also were found to mediate the relationships between gender and depressive symptomatology. These findings indicated that a preference for venting emotions may be particularly problematic when endorsed by girls, whereas instrumental social support may be particularly helpful for girls.

Social Media Use and Substance Use During Emerging Adulthood

This study examined the relationship between daily time spent using social media and substance use in a national sample of 563 emerging adults from the United States (18- to 22-year-olds, 50% female, 63% non-Hispanic White). Results revealed that males reported more social media use and more substance use in comparison to females. In addition, greater daily social media use was related to more alcohol consumption, more problematic alcohol use, and more frequent drug use. A significant gender × social media use interaction was also observed for drug use, revealing that greater daily social media use was significantly related to more frequent drug use for females but not for males. Results from this study emphasize the importance of considering different types of social media in relation to substance use and abuse during emerging adulthood and the need to examine these relations by gender.

Goal commitment predicts treatment outcome for adolescents with alcohol use disorder

OBJECTIVE Commitment to change is an innovative potential mediator and mechanism of behavior change (MOBC) that has not been examined in adolescents with substance use disorders (SUD). The Adolescent Substance Abuse Goal Commitment (ASAGC) questionnaire is a reliable and valid 2-scale measure developed to assess the adolescents commitment to either abstinence or harm reduction (HR) that includes consumption reduction as a stated treatment goal. The objective of this study was to examine the ASAGCs ability to predict alcohol use treatment outcome. METHOD During sessions three and nine of a 10-week treatment program, therapists completed the ASAGC for 170 adolescents 13-18years of age with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Drinking behaviors were assessed during and after a continued-care phase until 12-month from study onset. RESULTS Analysis of Variance results indicated that adolescents who reported no alcohol use had significantly higher scores on the commitment to abstinence scale than adolescents who reported alcohol use. None of the ANOVA models were significant for commitment to HR. When treatment outcome was examined, commitment to abstinence consistently predicted number of drinking days, number of heavy drinking days, and the maximum number of drinks post-treatment. In contrast, commitment to HR did not predict any of the drinking outcomes. These results suggest that the more adolescents were committed to abstinence during treatment, the less they used and abused alcohol after treatment completion. CONCLUSIONS In addition to the ASAGCs ability to differentiate between commitment to abstinence and commitment to HR, study findings demonstrate that goal commitment consistently predicts AUD treatment outcome.

The Impact of Adolescent Substance Use on Family Functioning: The Mediating Role of Internalizing Symptoms

This longitudinal study sought to investigate associations between adolescent substance use and family functioning and whether internalizing symptoms play a mediating role in this relationship; based on growing evidence from the literature, we also explored gender differences. Participants (N = 1,036) completed surveys in school during 2007, 2008, and 2009. Path analysis results indicated that boys’ alcohol use negatively predicted family functioning while marijuana use results indicate both significant impacts on family functioning. Further results show that boys’ depressive symptoms mediated the relationships between alcohol use and family cohesion and adaptability. For girls, depressive symptoms negatively predicted family functioning (cohesion, adaptability, communication with mother/father), whereas anxiety symptoms positively predicted this same set of family functioning outcomes with the exception of communication with father.