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Hopelab & Well Being Trust 70 Social Media Use When Feeling Depressed, Stressed, or Anxious, by Depressive Symptoms In this survey, we asked all young people (regardless of PHQ-8 score) directly how using social media makes them feel when they are already "feeling depressed, stressed or anxious." We wanted to know, from their perspective, whether social media is perceived to be a positive or negative resource during those times. We then explored how teens and young adults with moderate to severe depressive symptoms on the PHQ-8 responded to the questions about how using social media makes them feel when they are depressed, stressed, or anxious, as compared to young people with no depressive symptoms on the PHQ-8. Overall, TYAs with moderate to severe depressive symptoms are more likely to say that using social media when they are feeling depressed, stressed, or anxious usually makes them feel better (30%) rather than worse (22%); about half (47%) say it doesn't make them feel better or worse. However, the 22% who say it usually makes them feel worse in those instances is far higher than the 7% of TYAs without depressive symptoms who say the same. TYAs with moderate to severe depressive symptoms are also more likely to say that using social media during those times helps connect them to support and advice (25% v. 13% of those without depressive symptoms), and to say that it sends them "down a rabbit hole" (29% vs. 9%). In other words, young people with moderate to severe depressive symptoms on average report heightened positive and negative reactions to social media when feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed as compared to youth without depressive symptoms. Table 16: Reported effect of social media when feeling depressed, stressed, or anxious, by depressive symptoms Among 14- to 22-year-old social media users None Mild Moderate to severe Percent who say it makes them feel: Percent who say it: Better Connects them to helpful advice and support Worse Sends them down a rabbit hole No different Neither 24% 13%ª 7%ª 9%ª 68%ª 76%ª 30% 29% b 22% b 10% b 47% b 60% b 30% 25% b 22% b 29% b 47% b 46% b Source: Hopelab/Well Being Trust Teens and Young Adults Survey, February-March 2018. N=1,242 social media users ages 14-22. Note: Superscripts are used to denote statistical significance across rows at p<.05. Items with no superscripts, and items that share a common superscript, are not significantly different. Social Media Use and Mental Well-Being Social Media Use Among Young People With and Without Depressive Symptoms Depressive symptoms

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