Researchers at Georgetown University are conducting a study to examine the effects of social media exposure on the mental health of adolescents.
Fast Facts
Parent of a Child Ages
10-14
Your child will receive a free phone at the start of the study
Compensation up to $200
Conducted Remotely
Study Background
Causal Effects of Exposure to Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health
In this experimental study, we will randomly assign your adolescent child to have access to social media or not to have access to social media apps on their first smartphone for 3 months. This will allow us to examine the costs and benefits of mobile social media on adolescent mental health, explore which types of social media use are beneficial or detrimental, and examine whether there are any risk factors.
The total duration of the study is six months with assessments at baseline, and at 3 and 6 months after baseline. Each of the three assessments is anticipated to take about 20 minutes for you and your child. In addition to the main assessments, your child will be asked to answer a few questions each day, which will take no more than 30 seconds to complete and phone usage data will be collected passively. Altogether, we expect that your child will need to dedicate an estimated 2–3 hours to survey completion distributed across 6 months.
Help advance research on social media for children like yours. Join our study today!
Study Background
Causal Effects of Exposure to Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health
In this experimental study, we will randomly assign your adolescent child to have access to social media or not to have access to social media apps on their first smartphone for 3 months. This will allow us to examine the costs and benefits of mobile social media on adolescent mental health, explore which types of social media use are beneficial or detrimental, and examine whether there are any risk factors.
The total duration of the study is six months with assessments at baseline, and at 3 and 6 months after baseline. Each of the three assessments is anticipated to take about 20 minutes for you and your child. In addition to the main assessments, your child will be asked to answer a few questions each day, which will take no more than 30 seconds to complete and phone usage data will be collected passively. Altogether, we expect that your child will need to dedicate an estimated 2–3 hours to survey completion distributed across 6 months.
Help advance research on social media for children like yours. Join our study today!
Additional Information
There is a lot of speculation about how mobile phones and social media impact adolescent mental health, but little evidence is based on controlled experimental studies. This study will help us better understand the costs and benefits of exposure to social media on adolescent mental health.
You and your child may qualify for this study if you meet the following criteria.
Is an adolescent who is between the ages of 10 and 14
Is an adolescent whose parents have decided to allow them to have their first smartphone
All parents/guardians must consent for them to be in the study
Parent and adolescent must speak and read English sufficiently to complete surveys and provide informed consent.
Adolescent must voluntarily assent to be in the study
Before enrolling in the study, you and your child will attend a brief virtual interview with a study coordinator, which will take approximately 30 minutes.
You will receive $200 across four major time points. A study phone will be provided for your child. This phone will come prepared with study software. Parents will need to add this phone to their phone plan (or activate it in some way) to participate. I.e., the phone needs to get connected to a service provider. Adolescents will be permitted to keep the phone upon successful completion of the study at 6 months. If you already have a phone for your child, we will provide them with an Apple Watch instead.
There is no cost for you and your child to participate in our research study.