Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 66:4 (2025), pp 592–594 doi:10.1111/jcpp.
14133
Social media component effects: a commentary on
Maheux et al. (2024)
Michaeline Jensen
Department of Psychology, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA
Modern adolescents are persistently wired into their directions in future longitudinal and experimental
online social networks, spending an average of designs. For instance, further exploration of how
4–5 h/day on social media where they engage with design features such as push notifications, video auto
entertainment, communicate with friends/family play and endless scroll may increase habitual social
and seek out new knowledge (Rothwell, 2023). media checking and undermine attention is war-
Maheux et al.s’ annual review (2024) summarizes ranted, with high potential to inform design recom-
the findings from a rapidly evolving literature, which mendations on how to support adolescent mental
has (finally) begun to move beyond an overly simplis- health and well-being.
tic focus on ‘screen time’ to examine the specific In addition to promising initial evidence and future
components (including content, features and func- directions, several domains with quite robust evi-
tions) of social media that can help or hinder healthy dence stood out. Numerous studies conclude that
adolescent development. They compellingly highlight cybervictimization (e.g. online experiences of bully-
that a ubiquitous emphasis on screen time research, ing, discrimination and hate) exerts real harm,
which has yielded a combination of small, null and certainly for the direct recipient of attacks and also
mixed findings, likely obscures the more nuanced perhaps to those vicariously exposed to hateful
ways in which unique components of social media content online. Maheux et al. underscore the impor-
engagement may exert unique effects on adolescent tance of better understanding how the features and
mental health and well-being. Importantly, this affordances of different social media platforms may
Annual Research Review also highlights emerging perpetuate online hate. There is also fairly robust
evidence about how proposed effects of social media evidence that social media content related to specific
components appear to matter more for some adoles- body ideals (e.g. fitspiration, thinspiration or even
cents than others, underscoring utility in viewing more dangerous ‘pro-ana’ and ‘pro-mia’ eating
effects of social media components through a differ- disorder-related content) and/or preoccupation with
ential susceptibility or ‘person-specific’ lens (Valken- one’s appearance or image online seem to erode body
burg, Beyens, Pouwels, van Driel, & Keijsers, 2021; image. Unfortunately, it is not immediately clear how
Valkenburg & Peter, 2013). Here, I comment on how these robust research insights might translate into
the conclusions of Maheux et al. (2024) can help designs for mental health, as there appears to be no
shape future translational research on what compo- single design feature or affordance to blame. There is
nents of social media may facilitate or undermine certainly promise in the use of algorithms trained to
healthy adolescent development, and who is most deplatform hateful content and conversely, to
susceptible to these social media component effects. increase the reach of prosocial content.
Future research must also address when and where This annual review makes a compelling case that
social media components matter most, situating our who the adolescent is, with their unique constellation
understanding within temporal and physical context. of (neuro)biological, temperamental, social and other
Finally, the promise of future research is highlighted sources of vulnerability or resilience, can condition
on why youth engage with social media components effects based on components of social media. Adoles-
(motivations) and how specific components of social cents who are more neurobiologically and socially
media exert their effects (mechanisms). sensitive are most likely to be swayed by online social
A primary aim here was to review what components influence processes. The authors keenly point out
of social media youth are engaging with online (i.e. that youth who have been minoritized and marginal-
content, features and functions), and how these may ized in offline spaces may see both greater risk and
be important for mental health. Research on potential greater benefit in the online world, needing to balance
social media components effects is still in its infancy; a the perils of ubiquitous cyberhate with the richness of
number of the potentially important components online support networks and ease of access to health
reviewed here are backed by theory and some resources. Indeed, we know that marginalized youth
cross-sectional evidence, although it will be important can be sophisticated in their approaches to curating
to further explore and replicate these promising their online experiences to maximize benefits and
minimize harms (Hanckel, Vivienne, Byron, Robards,
& Churchill, 2019). This promising avenue for future
Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.
Ó 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and
Adolescent Mental Health.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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doi:10.1111/jcpp.14133 Commentary on Maheux et al. (2024) 593
research is one in which youth voice (e.g. through which they can engage in important proximal processes
Youth Participatory Action Research and qualitative at the same time. An innovative body of emerging work
studies) must be heard; it is likely that youth of colour, suggests that people may be sensitive to social media
sexual/gender minority youth and youth with other effects in different types of physical contexts (e.g. in
minoritized identities are engaging with social media social places, in nature; Vaid et al., 2024). I am excited
in ways we cannot imagine, unless we ask them. to see how methodological advances such as geotagging
Maheux et al. (2024) astutely situate their review in of passively sensed social media engagement data can
adolescence, which has long been understood as a key help us understand how the same type of social media
developmental window for social development. Initially engagement may matter in different ways depending on
conceptualized solely as a corridor of developmental the physical context in which it is embedded.
risk, scholars increasingly recognize that adolescent Finally, future research will provide much needed
neurobiological maturation and increasing complexity data on why social adolescents are drawn to certain
in social relationships make adolescence a period of social media components (motivations) and how
both risk and opportunity within social interactions, these components ultimately cascade to impacting
including those that occur online. As Maheux et al. mental health and well-being (mechanisms). Youth
note, the literature thus far has been mostly interested have considerable agency in online social media
in perceived perils online, and research on the interactions, and it will be important to continue to
components of social media that can encourage elicit their opinions on their motivations and per-
prosocial development is still nascent. An important ceptions about distinct components, which has
future direction will be to elucidate how social media recently pointed to specific features that the youth
fosters or indeed, could foster, the building blocks of themselves perceive as problematic (Nesi, Mann, &
healthy identity development and mental health, Robb, 2023). Equally important will be longitudinal
especially if we are forward thinking around platform and experimental research to elucidate the mecha-
design and prescriptive legislation. Promising avenues nisms of the social media component effects pro-
include ways in which social media may offer adoles- posed here and their malleability, with considerable
cents the opportunity to ‘matter’, build rewarding promise for mechanisms solidly grounded in theory
social ties and care for others, and reinforce prosocial and developmental science of adolescence (e.g. peer
behaviour (Armstrong-Carter & Telzer, 2021; Dahl, selection/socialization and identity development).
Armstrong-Carter, & van den Bos, 2024). I sincerely hope that gone are the days when
The ‘when’ of social media component effects cross-sectional studies on self-reported screen time
should certainly consider developmental timing, are heralded as revelational evidence of the wide-
though it ought also to consider whether, even spread harms of social media and smartphone use,
within a key developmental window such as early and that academics, the media and the public can take
adolescence, different social media components may a more careful, nuanced, mechanistic approach to
exert their effects at different timescales. Although understanding what types of adolescent social media
much of the evidence reviewed is cross-sectional and engagement can foster developmental competence
makes comparisons between adolescents at a single and/or facilitate pathways towards risk. It is impor-
time point, Maheux et al. (2024) also present tant to remember that this work will be challenging.
evidence that some types of social media engagement Platforms evolve rapidly and the component of the
are associated with mental health over the course of moment today may be gone tomorrow. For instance,
months or years, whereas other types of social media we are already seeing that novel design features
engagement may have more acute effects that play present in some generative AI (e.g. conversational AI
out over seconds, minutes or hours. Future research designed with anthropomorphism and personification
should carefully consider whether the traditional in mind; Mariani, Hashemi, & Wirtz, 2023) are highly
types of longitudinal designs oft employed in devel- engaging, helpful and even fun, but can also present
opmental science (e.g. annual waves of data collec- risks for vulnerable users. The growing ranks of social
tion well-suited to between-adolescent comparisons media components researchers will have to be nimble
and NIH budget timelines) can be complemented by to identify and study novel components as they arise,
more intensive longitudinal designs that shed light but they are certainly fit for the challenge.
on within-adolescent processes.
We are better equipped today than ever before to ask
and answer these types of ‘when’ questions, due to Acknowledgements
advances in data collection (e.g. passive sensing and The authors have declared that they have no competing
timestamping of specific social media activities) and or potential conflicts of interest.
data analysis (e.g. dynamic structural equation model-
ling). These methodological advances also equip us to
consider where social media components may matter, Correspondence
and in what ways. Navarro and Tudge (2023) Michaeline Jensen, Department of Psychology, UNC
neo-ecological theory asserts that adolescents exist Greensboro, PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402,
within both virtual and physical microsystems, within USA; Email: [email protected]
Ó 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for
Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
14697610, 2025, 4, Downloaded from https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.14133 by Sahamia Ribeiro - Capes , Wiley Online Library on [23/03/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
594 Michaeline Jensen J Child Psychol Psychiatr 2025; 66(4): 592–4
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Ó 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for
Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
