what is being said in the text in simple summary? During the COVID-19 pandemic, some ways of using social media—such as directly communicating with friends—
may have helped adolescents thrive. We examined longitudinal associations between high school adolescents’ social
media use and gratitude across a 15-month period before and during the pandemic (n = 704, Mage = 15.10; 52% girls).
The trajectories of gratitude and the importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends—but not frequency of social media use—were positively associated over time. At the within-person level, gratitude predicted
increased importance of social media for meaningful conversations, but not vice-versa. Findings suggest that gratitude
may be associated with and may motivate using social media to foster social connection, but may not increase overall
social media use.
Key words: adolescence – gratitude – social media
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous
impact on individuals’ social and psychological
lives. For adolescents, the reduced in-person interaction with peers necessitated by the pandemic
may pose unique challenges (Orben, Tomova, &
Blakemore, 2020). To overcome the social distancing guidelines that restrict in-person interactions,
many adolescents have been using social media to
connect with peers during COVID-19 (Common
Sense Media, 2020; Hamilton et al., in press).
Despite prevailing discussions about the risks of
adolescent social media use, positive engagement
with peers on social media offers benefits, including opportunities to reap social support and
engage in self-disclosure (Uhls, Ellison, &
Subrahmanyam, 2017). Directly communicating
with close friends on social media when in-person
interactions are prohibited may be key to helping
adolescents thrive during the isolation of COVID19 (Hamilton et al., in press; Orben et al., 2020).
Gratitude, defined broadly as a general orientation toward “seeing the positive,” particularly in
the context of social relationships (Wood, Froh, &
Geraghty, 2010), may also help adolescents cope
with the social deprivation of the pandemic. Notably, research has shown that gratitude both promotes positive social relationships and,
simultaneously, is often enhanced in the context of
close relationships (see Wood et al., 2010). With
limited opportunities for in-person interaction, adolescents with higher trait gratitude may be more
inclined to seek alternative, online routes to meaningful social interaction. Additionally, adolescents
who have maintained social connection with
friends on social media during the pandemic may
have more opportunities to experience kindness
and supportive relationships, which may in turn
induce feelings of gratitude. In this study, we
examine bidirectional associations between adolescents’ gratitude and motivation to use social media for meaningful communication with friends across
a 15-month period leading up to and during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Adolescent Peer Interactions and the COVID-19
Pandemic
One of the most notable characteristics of adolescent development is the increased salience and
importance of peers. Relative to children, adolescents spend more time with peers and peer relationships become more intimate and complex
(Brown & Larson, 2009). Nearly all adolescents
have at least one friend (Anderson & Jiang, 2018),
and friendships provide adolescents with support
and mutual responsiveness, as well as opportunities to build social skills like conflict management
and perspective-taking (Bagwell & Bukowski,
2018).
Although some challenges of the pandemic have
affected only a subset of adolescents—including
financial disruptions and death of loved ones—
nearly all adolescents have had to contend with
restrictions on peer interactions, increasing the risk
for mental health problems (Loades et al., 2020;
Racine et al., 2020). In numerous studies from the
early months of the pandemic, adolescents reported
that one of their greatest concerns about COVID-19
social distancing was about maintaining friendships remotely (e.g., Efuribe, Barre-Hemingway,
Vaghefi, & Suleiman, 2020; Ellis, Dumas, & Forbes,
2020). Although evidence is still emerging, some
findings suggest that the ability to stay connected
to friends is protective against mental health challenges related to social distancing during the pandemic (Magson et al., 2021). Adolescents who have
been able to safely continue meaningfully connecting with friends during the pandemic may have
better mental health and more opportunities to
experience positive emotions.
Adolescent Social Media Use
Social media refers to websites and applications
that allow for social interaction (Hamilton et al., in
press; Nesi, Choukas-Bradley, & Prinstein, 2018).
To contend with limitations on in-person interactions, many adolescents have turned to social
media, even more so than usual, for peer connection during the pandemic (Common Sense Media,
2020; Ellis et al., 2020; Munasinghe et al., 2020).
Some parents have reported that their children’s
social media use has become “excessive” (Caffo,
Scandroglio, & Asta, 2020), and many have sought
strategies to reduce their children’s media use
given concerns about its potential negative effects
(Vanderloo et al., 2020). Indeed, there is a small
positive association between frequency of social
media use and adolescent internalizing symptoms
that has received ample research attention in recent
years (Keles, McCrae, & Grealish, 2020; Sarmiento
et al., 2020). However, it is necessary to disentangle
frequency of use (i.e., “screen time”) from quality
of use (see Granic, Morita, & Scholten, 2020; Marino, 2018; Odgers & Jensen, 2020), particularly in
an era when most or all peer interactions occur on
these platforms.
Prior to the pandemic, adolescents reported that
a primary motivation to use social media was to
interact with peers and 81% said that social media
helped them feel more connected to friends
(Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Although theories on the
affordances of social media highlight the differences between in-person and technology-mediated
communication (e.g., boyd, 2010; Nesi et al., 2018;
Subrahmanyam & Smahel, 2011), the features of
social media do not preclude positive social experiences. For example, to varying degrees, interactions
on social media can be asynchronous and provide
limited interpersonal social cues (Nesi et al., 2018).
However, the asynchronicity and constant availability of social media allows for adolescents to
communicate with their friends more frequently
than in-person interactions would allow. Increasingly, social media platforms also offer a range of
features, such that adolescents may have opportunities to post publicly, chat privately, or video chat
with their friends, all on the same platform.
Relative to the large body of work on the risks
of social media use, research examining the potential positive impacts of social media use on adolescents is extremely sparse. Preliminary evidence
suggests that benefits are accrued in large part
through positive social connection, feelings of
social belonging, and direct communication with
friends (Allen, Ryan, Gray, McInerney, & Waters,
2014; Uhls et al., 2017). Specifically, when social
media is used to foster close relationships, some
evidence suggests that adolescents can feel positive
emotions, such as higher self-esteem, well-being,
and relational satisfaction (Best, Manktelow, & Taylor, 2014; Hall & Baym, 2011; Uhls et al., 2017).
Given the strong associations between various positive emotions and the uniquely social component
of gratitude (Wood et al., 2010), gratitude may also
theoretically result from online social connection.
Gratitude may also prompt adolescents to engage
in positive interactions on social media, yet no prior work has examined positive emotional antecedents of different types of social media use.
The Role of Gratitude
In the limited prior work on adolescents’ positive
use of social media, no studies have examined the
role of gratitude. Although higher gratitude may
both encourage and stem from meaningful peer
interaction on social media, gratitude may be of
particular relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being thankful for close relationships and
one’s life circumstances is an adaptive, natural coping response when those people and circumstances
are threatened during a crisis (Fredrickson,
Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003). Indeed, a sentiment analysis of public Twitter posts found that
expressions of gratitude increased during the early
months of the pandemic (Lwin et al., 2020).
Gratitude can be defined as both an emotion
and a trait. In terms of emotionality, grateful affect
(e.g., feeling thankfulness after receiving aid from
others) can vary in frequency and intensity across
people and time (Wood et al., 2010). Gratitude as a
trait is broadly conceptualized as an “orientation
toward noticing and appreciating the positive in
the world” (Wood et al., 2010; pg. 891), and higher
trait gratitude is characterized by consistently
higher levels of grateful affect (McCullough,
Emmons, & Tsang, 2002). Research in the field of
positive psychology indicates that positive emotions such as gratitude—not just the absence of
negative emotions—are central to health, wellness,
resilience, and human flourishing (see Seligman &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Robust evidence with
adults and adolescents indicates that gratitude is
associated with lower risk of psychopathology and
higher well-being (Bono et al., 2019; Froh, Bono, &
Emmons, 2010; Kwok, Gu, & Cheung, 2019; Wood
et al., 2010; Yang, Yan, Jia, Wang, & Kong, 2020).
Gratitude is also a uniquely social emotion,
given that gratitude is often felt toward others and
in the context of interpersonal relationships. Theoretical work highlights that gratitude plays a central evolutionary role in promoting social wellbeing and mutual responsivity in close relationships (Algoe, 2012), suggesting that gratitude may
impact well-being indirectly through positive social
experiences. Empirical findings also suggest a bidirectional association between gratitude and positive social connection. For example, among adults,
gratitude for a romantic partner both originates
from and promotes relationship maintenance
behaviors (Kubacka, Finkenauer, Rusbult, &
Keijsers, 2011). Among adolescents, longitudinal
findings show that gratitude and positive social
outcomes, including social integration and prosocial behavior, are mutually reinforcing (Bono et al.,
2019; Froh et al., 2010). Although research has not
examined mutually reinforcing associations
between gratitude and online social connection,
these prior findings likely apply to social media
contexts. Gratitude is likely not sufficient to fully
shield individuals from the challenges and tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet gratitude and
meaningful online communication may have benefits for some adolescents.
The Present Study
The current study examines associations between
changes in gratitude and motivations to use social
media before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
among U.S. high school adolescents. Although
prior work has focused almost exclusively on the
risks of social media use, in this study we sought
to identify associations between social media use
and gratitude—a positive emotional experience—
particularly in a context when in-person social
interaction is not possible. During the pandemic,
gratitude may motivate social interaction (Jiang,
2020; Syropoulos & Markowitz, 2021), even when
only online social contact is permitted. Additionally, social interaction—particularly when social
deprivation is high—may spur feelings of gratitude. We sought to understand how adolescents’
motivation to use social media for direct, meaningful conversations could be related to gratitude,
above and beyond the effects of frequency of social
media use. We predicted that gratitude and the
importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends would be bidirectionally associated over time.
METHOD
Participants were 743 adolescents between the ages
of 13 and 18 at baseline (Mage = 15.10, SDage = 1.01)
recruited from a large, diverse suburban high
school district in the U.S. state of Florida as part of
a longitudinal study assessing adolescents’ character development and social media use. The vast
majority (n = 724) attended a single school, ten participants attended a second school, and the remaining participants (n = 9) attended four other schools.
Adolescents self-reported their gender identity at
each time point. The sample included 52.2% girls
and 44.5% boys; 3.1% reported another gender identity or reported different gender identities at
different time points. One participant had missing
data for gender identity. Data were collected and
de-identified by the Character Lab Research Network (CLRN) before being shared with the
research team. The CLRN is a consortium of
schools and researchers working together to collect
school-based data and facilitate developmental
research. Students completed online surveys during regular school hours. All study procedures
were approved by the university’s Institutional
Review Board.
Sample demographic information regarding race
and socioeconomic status (SES) was obtained from
school student information systems data. The sample was 53.97% Hispanic/Latinx, 26.11% White
non-Hispanic/Latinx, 7.40% Black, 6.46% Asian,
and 6.06% multiracial or another race/ethnicity.
Nearly half of participants (43.61%) indicated that
they were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch,
which was used in this study as a proxy for lower
SES.
Participants completed an online survey at four
time points: two before the pandemic (October
2019 [T1] and February 2020 [T2]), and two during
the pandemic (October 2020 [T3] and January 2021
[T4]). During COVID-19, all participants at one
school (n = 10) attended school fully virtually. The
remaining schools were operating under a hybrid
learning environment, such that some students
were fully in-person and others were fully virtual.
A minority of these students were engaging in inperson learning at T3 (15.21%) and T4 (27.46%); the
remaining students were learning virtually. Independent samples t tests compared those who were
learning virtually to those who were learning inperson at both time points during COVID-19. There
were no significant differences in frequency of
social media use at T3 (t = .35, p = .72) or T4
(t = .13, p = .89), no significant differences in gratitude at T3 (t = .13, p = .90) or T4 (t = .87,
p = .39), and no significant differences in the
importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends at T3 (t = .60, p = .55) or T4
(t = .97, p = .33).
Measures
Frequency of social media use. A single item
was developed for the current study to assess time
spent using social media. At each time point, the
survey packet indicated to participants that “Social
media refers to any apps or websites that involve
social interaction, such as Instagram, Snapchat, or
Facebook.” Participants reported, on average, how
many hours they spent on social media per day.
Response options ranged from 0 = less than one
hour to 10 = 10 hours or more. Similar single-item
measures of frequency of social media use are commonly used among adolescent samples (e.g., Ellis
et al., 2020).
Importance of social media for meaningful conversations. Using a survey instrument developed
by Common Sense Media (2020), participants
responded to the item, “How important is social
media to you for having meaningful conversations
with your close friends?” Responses ranged from
1 = Not important at all to 5 = Extremely important.
Gratitude. To assess adolescents’ trait gratitude, participants completed the Gratitude
Questionnaire-Six Item Form at each time point
(GQ-6; McCullough et al., 2002). The scale assesses
the level of gratitude participants experience in
their daily lives. Example items include “I have so
much in life to be thankful for,” “I am grateful to a
wide variety of people,” and “As I get older, I find
myself more able to appreciate the people, events,
and situations that have been a part of my life history.” Response options range from 1 = Strongly
disagree to 7 = Strongly agree. A mean score is calculated across items, with higher scores indicating
greater gratitude. The GQ-6 can be reliably used
with adolescent samples (Froh et al., 2011) and
showed good reliability in the current study (T1
a = .80, T2 a = .79, T3 a = .77, T4 a = .79).
Analysis Plan
Descriptive statistics, including means, standard
deviations, and bivariate correlations among all
study variables, were first examined using R version 3.6.1. The remainder of analyses were conducted within a structural equation modeling
framework in MPlus 8.5 (Muthen & Muthen, 1998–
2017). Any participants who had data for any
study variables of interest (i.e., gratitude, importance of social media for meaningful conversations,
and frequency of social media use) at Time 3 or
Time 4 (i.e., during the COVID-19 pandemic) were
included in analyses. Full information maximum
likelihood with robust standard errors (MLR) was
used for estimation and to handle missing data.
When comparing fit between two nested models,
chi-square difference tests using an MLR correction
(Sartorra & Bentler, 2010) were used to determine
relative model fit. For the latent growth curve model, covariates included gender (i.e., boy, other
gender; girl as reference group), race/ethnicity
(i.e., White, Black, Asian, other race/ethnicity;
Hispanic/Latinx as reference group), SES (i.e.,
dummy code for free/reduced-price lunch), and
school (i.e., a dummy code for the largest school).
First, a multivariate latent growth curve model
with four time points was constructed to examine
trajectories and relations among variables of interest. Time was coded in models so as to account
for unequal intervals between time points (i.e.,
factor loadings set to 1.2, .8, 0, and .3). The
intercept for all variables was set to Time 3, the
first time point during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unconditional univariate latent growth models
were first conducted to determine the optimal
functional form of each variable and to examine
the time-specific residual structure. A multivariate
model was then constructed, controlling for demographic covariates, with each of the three primary
variables examined in parallel, modeling covariances among latent growth factors.
Next, a random-intercept cross-lagged panel
model was constructed to examine the direction
of effects in within-person associations between
variables. The model simultaneously included all
three variables with autoregressive and crosslagged paths estimated between time points and
within-time covariances among the variables.
Separate models were tested with constraints setting equal the cross-lagged paths, the autoregressive paths, and their combination. These models
were compared to a baseline model with no constraints. We retained the most parsimonious
model that did not worsen fit compared to the
baseline model.
RESULTS
Descriptive statistics for all study variables and
bivariate correlations are presented in Table 1.
Univariate Latent Growth Models
Unconditional univariate latent growth models
were first constructed for each variable. Interceptonly models were first conducted for each, followed by models with both latent intercept and
slope factors, and finally, latent intercept, slope,
and quadratic factors. Equality constraints on
time-specific residuals were then compared
against a heteroscedastic residual structure. For
gratitude, a linear model with heteroscedastic
residuals was the best-fitting and most parsimonious, with excellent fit, v2
(5) = 6.48,
p = .262, RMSEA = .02, SRMR = .05, CFI = 1.00,
TLI = .99. For frequency of social media use, a linear model with homoscedastic residuals was determined to be the optimal model form, with
excellent fit, v2
(8) = 12.18, p = .143, RMSEA = .03,
SRMR = .04, CFI = 0.99, TLI = .99. For importance
of social media for meaningful conversations, a linear model with homoscedastic residuals was also
best, with excellent fit, v2
(8) = 16.71, p = .033,
RMSEA = .04, SRMR = .07, CFI = 0.97, TLI = .98.
Results of these models suggested a significant
negative slope (b = 0.15, SE = .03, p < .001) and
positive intercept (b = 4.36, SE = .03, p < .001) for
gratitude. Similarly, a significant negative slope
(b = 0.10, SE = .04, p = .005) and positive intercept (b = 3.63, SE = .03, p < .001) were revealed for
importance of social media for meaningful conversations. The slope of frequency of social media use
was positive and significant (b = 0.40, SE = .60,
p < .001), and the intercept was positive (b = 4.14,
SE = .07, p < .001). Variances of slopes and intercepts were significant (p < .001) for all models with
the exception of the slope variance for frequency of
social media use (p = .48).
Multivariate Model
These best-fitting univariate models were then
combined into a single, multivariate model with
covariances between all latent growth factors and
correlations between time-specific residuals (see
Figure 1). Setting correlations between time-specific
residuals to be equal across time did not result in a
significant decrement in model fit; thus, these constraints were retained for parsimony. The final
model included time-invariant covariates of gender, race/ethnicity, SES, and school. Model fit was
excellent, v2
(102) = 118.73, p = .123, RMSEA = .02,
SRMR = .03, CFI = 0.99, TLI = .98.
In the final model, the slope of importance of
social media for meaningful conversations was significantly associated with the slope of gratitude,
controlling for overall trajectories of social media
use. This indicates that youth who experience steeper decreases in the importance they attribute to
social media for meaningful conversations also
report steeper decreases in gratitude over time.
Similarly, youth who experience steeper increases
in the importance of social media for meaningful
conversations also report steeper increases in gratitude. However, there was no association between
the slope of frequency of social media use and
slope of gratitude. See Table 2 for covariances
among all latent growth factors in the final, conditional multivariate model.
Within-Person Cross-Lagged Associations
Finally, a random-intercept cross-lagged panel
model was used to examine within-person change
in gratitude, time on social media, and importance
of social media for meaningful conversations with
friends (see Figure 2). Nested model comparisons
suggested that the cross-lagged paths could be constrained to be equal, but constraining autoregressive paths resulted in a significant decrement in
model fit; thus, in the final model, cross-lagged
paths were constrained, whereas autoregressive
paths were allowed to freely vary. The model fit
the data well, v2
(33) = 45.24, p = .076,
RMSEA = .02, SRMR = .04, CFI = 0.99, TLI = .98.
The stable between-person part of the model (i.e.,
the random intercept) showed a significant negative covariance between gratitude and time on
social media (b = 0.24, SE = .08, p = .003), a significant positive covariance between time on social
media and importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends (b = 0.28,
SE = .08, p < .001), and a nonsignificant association
between gratitude and importance of social media
for conversations with friends (b = 0.07,
SE = .04, p = .078).
The within-person part of the model indicated a
significant cross-lagged path from gratitude to
importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends. Adolescents who reported
higher levels of gratitude at a given time point
(compared to their average) reported higher importance of social media for meaningful conversations
with friends at subsequent time points (b = 0.11,
SE = .05, p = .045). The opposite direction of effects
was not supported: within-person change in importance of social media for conversations with friends
was not significantly associated with within-person
change in gratitude at a subsequent time point
(b = 0.03, SE = .04, p = .432). Within-person change
in frequency of social media use was not associated
with subsequent change in gratitude (b = 0.01,
SE = .03, p = .852) or importance of social media
for meaningful conversations with friends
(b = 0.02, SE = .03, p = .435). Within-person
change in frequency of social media use was also
not predicted by prior change in gratitude
(b = 0.01, SE = .10, p = .884) or importance of
social media for meaningful conversations with
friends (b = 0.12, SE = .07, p = .092). See Table 3 for
the within-person autoregressive and cross-lagged DISCUSSION
The current study examined U.S. adolescents’ gratitude and social media experiences across a 15-
month period leading up to and during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, results show that
gratitude and the importance adolescents attribute
to using social media for meaningful conversations
with friends are associated over time. Across the
four time points of the study, gratitude and importance of social media for meaningful conversations
with friends went down on average, but were positively associated with each other over time. In other words, those who reported greater importance of social media for having meaningful conversations over time also reported higher levels of
gratitude over time. Furthermore, at the withinperson level, higher-than-average gratitude was
associated with subsequent increases in the importance of social media for meaningful conversations,
but not vice-versa, suggesting that within-person
increases in gratitude may spur motivation to use
social media to connect with friends. Across models, frequency of social media use was generally
not significantly associated with gratitude, or in
some cases was negatively associated. Thus, gratitude may be associated with using social media to
foster social connection, but not necessarily all
social media use.
Benefits of Social Media Use During the COVID19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened the mental health of adolescents in numerous ways,
including by limiting their in-person social
interactions during a developmental period when
peers are of the utmost importance. Online communication, primarily through social media, may
be the only way adolescents can continue relationships with friends and stay connected to a
broader peer network. Prior work has shown that
adolescents’ frequent social media use is associated with worse mental health (Keles et al., 2020;
Sarmiento et al., 2020). However, the effects of
social media use on adolescent well-being likely
depend on the type of social media use in question. For example, one recent study found that
more frequent social media use during the pandemic was associated with negative outcomes for
some adolescents, yet frequent direct online communication with friends was associated with
lower levels of loneliness (Ellis et al., 2020). In line
with this prior work, the present results highlight
that intraindividual change in using social media
to foster or maintain close relationships with
friends may co-occur with changes in gratitude
and may be more important to consider than
overall frequency of social media use. Directional Associations Between Gratitude and
Social Media Use
To our knowledge, no prior work has examined
how the importance adolescents attribute to social
media for having meaningful communication with
friends is associated with gratitude—or any positive emotion—over time. Yet prior work has found
that gratitude is associated with better individual
mental health both directly and indirectly through
increased positive social experiences (Wood et al.,
2010). The association between gratitude and interpersonal relationships is often mutually reinforcing
in an “upward spiral,” with gratitude contributing
to positive social experiences and these experiences
in turn enhancing gratitude (e.g., Bono et al., 2019;
Fredrickson, 2004; Froh et al., 2010). The inclination
toward positive social engagement for those high
in gratitude is likely not limited to in-person
interactions. Social media offers a unique venue for
engaging in social connection and building gratitude, particularly when other forms of interpersonal connection are limited—such as during a
pandemic.
In the current study, at the within-person level,
increases in gratitude relative to one’s average
were associated with subsequent increases in the
importance of social media for meaningful conversations, yet increases in the importance of social
media for meaningful conversations were not
directly associated with later increases in gratitude.
Thus, our findings highlight that gratitude may
encourage social media use aimed at fostering close
peer connections, without increasing overall social
media use. As such, gratitude may be a key underexplored mechanism in enhancing positive social
media use. Broadly speaking, these results highlight an important and often overlooked point
for an understanding of adolescent social media
use: while researchers usually focus on how social
media use predicts subsequent adjustment, adolescents’ sense of well-being may also drive how they
engage with social media. One recent study
showed that life satisfaction predicted less frequent
social media use among adolescents (Orben, Dienlin, & Przybylskia, 2019), but the effect of emotional states on specific social media behaviors
remains underexplored. Additionally, although
adolescents’ specific uses of social media have
occasionally been examined as an outcome of psychopathology (Radovic, Gmelin, Stein, & Miller,
2017), we are unaware of prior studies investigating how adolescents’ positive socioemotional states
or traits predict specific forms of social media use.
Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for
Future Research and Intervention
Although the present results may be specific to the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the results
likely have broad implications. For adolescents
experiencing isolation—whether physical or emotional—some forms of social media use may be
related to positive emotional experiences, such as
gratitude (Orben et al., 2020). Additionally, adolescents who experience positive emotions such as
gratitude may benefit from social media as a context for positive interpersonal experiences (e.g.,
connection, support), given that it is available 24/7,
unlike in-person social interactions (Nesi et al.,
2018). For example, adolescents who are physically
isolated from their communities, such as those living in rural settings, may benefit from using social
media to foster and maintain meaningful connections with their close friends (Chew, LaRose, Steinfield, & Velasquez, 2011), which may contribute to
an upward spiral of positive emotions and positive
social interactions. Future research should explore
other potential positive emotional experiences
beyond gratitude that may be associated with certain positive forms of social media use. Researchers
can use findings on adolescent social media use
during the era of COVID-19 as a foundation from
which to understand the potential for social media
to foster connection, perhaps especially among isolated adolescents (for a theoretical commentary, see
Hamilton et al., in press).
More broadly, current and future research on
adolescent social media use should examine how
adolescents are using social media and what
socioemotional experiences precede and arise from
these experiences (see Granic et al., 2020; Keles
et al., 2020; Marino, 2018; Odgers & Jensen, 2020).
The vast majority of previous work focuses on frequency of social media use. Results from this prior
work provide important insights into the effects of
frequent social media use, yet collapse a variety of
different social media behaviors into a single metric of use. In the current study, we found that overall social media use functioned very differently
from adolescents’ reported importance of social
media for meaningful conversations with close
friends. Future research should attend to the diversity and nuances of adolescents’ potential positive
and negative experiences online, made possible by
the affordances of social media (boyd, 2010; Nesi
et al., 2018; Subrahmanyam & Smahel, 2011).
Notably, very little prior work has specifically
examined adolescents’ motivations for using social
media for meaningful conversations with friends,
perhaps due to an assumption that online interactions are more superficial or transient. However, to
the extent that youth are engaging in the majority
of their peer interactions via social media, it is critical to understand how online engagement is supporting key socio-developmental tasks such as the
development of more intimate, complex peer relationships. Given that some recent work has found
that online social support may not provide the
same psychological benefits as face-to-face support
among young adults (e.g., Shensa et al., 2020),
future research should aim to understand how features of different social media tools (e.g., private
text messaging, video chatting, public posting)
afforded by online communication alter adolescents’ meaningful conversations with friends.
Importantly, the current results highlight possible avenues of intervention to increase adolescents’
positive emotional experiences using social media.
Until recently, most social media-related interventions have focused on limiting social media use
directly or reducing the negative effects of social
media (e.g., Galla, Choukas-Bradley, Fiore, &
Esposito, 2021; Tamplin, McLean, & Paxton, 2018;
Walther, Hanewinkel, & Morgenstern, 2014). Fewer
interventions have sought to increase positive experiences on social media or foster the antecedents
(e.g., gratitude) of positive social media use. In a
recent school-based gratitude intervention, adolescents who used a novel social media app to
express gratitude for their peers showed increases
in trait gratitude, positive affect, life satisfaction,
and friendship satisfaction and reductions in anxiety and negative affect (Bono, Mangan, Fauteux, &
Sender, 2020). Interventions that aim to enhance the positive aspects of social media use—particularly using the tools and platforms adolescents are
already accessing—could broadly benefit adolescent mental health and specifically target teens
who are struggling with physical or social isolation. Likewise, interventions aimed at boosting
gratitude may contribute to increasing positive
social media use and upward spirals of well-being.
Limitations and Future Directions
The current study has several strengths, including
the use of a large sample of adolescents followed
across a 15-month period leading up to and during
the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the results
from this sample may not generalize to other samples or contexts. For example, the negative effects
of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been universally experienced; adolescents of color and those
living in low-income contexts have been disproportionately negatively affected (Webb Hooper,
Napoles, & Perez-Stable, 2020). The current sample
is relatively diverse in terms of racial/ethnic identity and SES, yet each was measured with a oneitem proxy reported by the school. Complex contextual factors affecting the adolescents in this sample remain unknown, limiting our ability to
examine the role of these factors in the current
models and to determine the generalizability of the
present results. For adolescents struggling under
the burden of poverty or discrimination, communication with friends online and experiences of gratitude may have benefits, but may not be sufficient
to overcome systemic barriers to sustained wellbeing. Future research is critical to understand how
these complex contextual and identity factors affect
the online and socioemotional experiences of
diverse adolescents.
Additionally, although we found no differences
across participants who were learning in-person vs.
virtually during COVID-19, we do not have sufficient
information to understand how the present results
may be directly affected by isolation from schoolbased peers. For example, even adolescents who have
been attending school in-person during the pandemic
may struggle with isolation if their friends are engaging in remote learning, whereas those learning remotely who are able to safely see friends in-person may
be protected from loneliness despite broader isolation
from peers. Future work that replicates the present
findings in various contexts, including during the
pandemic and in other situations of isolation, will
help elucidate the unique effect of peer isolation on
the present findings.
The present study also relies on correlational
self-report data. Self-report measures are critical for
understanding the subjective reactions adolescents
have to online experiences. However, adolescents’
reports of their frequency of social media use could
be supplemented with passively collected phonebased data in future work, which can measure frequency of use without recall bias. Ecological
momentary assessment procedures may also help
capture immediate affective responses to social
media experiences, providing more information
about the temporal unfolding of short- and longterm effects of experiences on social media (e.g.,
Hamilton, Do, Choukas-Bradley, Ladouceur, & Silk,
2021). Moreover, while the current study provides
information about the unfolding of adolescents’
social media experiences and gratitude across four
time points, causality cannot be determined without an experimental design.
CONCLUSION
The current study highlights associations between
adolescents’ gratitude and motivation to use social
media to build social connection in the context of
COVID-19. This study also highlights the value of
including measures of specific social media behaviors beyond simply frequency of social media use
to understand social-emotional development and
sheds light on how some forms of social media use
may be linked to positive emotional experiences.
Furthermore, our results suggest gratitude is a predictor of positive social media use not previously
studied among adolescents. Using social media to
foster social connection, but not all social media
use, may be associated with higher gratitude over
time, and furthermore, gratitude may motivate
adolescents’ meaningful social media use. While
our findings are preliminary, they suggest potential
avenues for interventions that aim to enhance the
positive aspects of social media use, which could
be especially beneficial for teens struggling with
physical or social isolation.