Getting enough sleep and seeing friends may have a bigger effect on teenage girls’ mental wellbeing than social media use, a report suggests.
The finding comes in the government’s new State of the Nation report, looking at young people’s happiness levels.
Social media use in itself was found not to be strongly linked to girls’ mental health unless youngsters were losing sleep or being bullied online.
Bullying had an effect on wellbeing eight times stronger than social media.
Despite continued debate about the impact of social media on young people’s wellbeing, the report suggested once other factors were taken into account, there was not a strong link with psychological health.