Considering All of the Data on Digital-Media Use and Depressive Symptoms: Response to Ophir, Lipshits-Braziler, and Rosenberg (2020)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-383
Author(s):  
Jean M. Twenge ◽  
Thomas E. Joiner ◽  
Megan L. Rogers ◽  
Gabrielle N. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Large Data Sets ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Monitoring The Future ◽  
The Individual

We have documented increases since 2012 in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide and identified associations between digital-media use and depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes across two data sets: Monitoring the Future (MtF) and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). Ophir, Lipshits-Braziler, and Rosenberg’s criticisms of the MtF data (this issue; pp. 374–378) are addressed by the YRBSS data, which included a measure of digital-media use in hours. Ophir et al. assumed that the displacement of nonscreen activities by screen activities occurs only at the individual level, whereas in fact, time displacement at the group or cohort level may be more important. Some discrepancies in the literature can be traced to the use of percentage variance explained; in fact, heavy (vs. light) digital-media users are considerably more likely (often twice as likely) to be depressed or low in well-being across several large data sets.

scholarly journals Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms—A Longitudinal Study from Early to Late Adolescence

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Puukko ◽  
Lauri Hietajärvi ◽  
Erika Maksniemi ◽  
Kimmo Alho ◽  
Katariina Salmela-Aro
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Late Adolescence ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Impact

An increasing number of studies have addressed how adolescents’ social media use is associated with depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined whether these links occur longitudinally across adolescence when examined at the individual level of development. This study investigated the within-person effects between active social media use and depressive symptoms using a five-wave longitudinal dataset gathered from 2891 Finnish adolescents (42.7% male, age range 13–19 years). Sensitivity analysis was conducted, adjusting for gender and family financial status. The results indicate that depressive symptoms predicted small increases in active social media use during both early and late adolescence, whereas no evidence of the reverse relationship was found. Yet, the associations were very small, statistically weak, and somewhat inconsistent over time. The results provide support for the growing notion that the previously reported direct links between social media use and depressive symptoms might be exaggerated. Based on these findings, we suggest that the impact of social media on adolescents’ well-being should be approached through methodological assumptions that focus on individual-level development.

scholarly journals Discordant Chronic Conditions and Depressive Symptoms: Longitudinal Associations Among Middle-Aged and Older Couples

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Benjamin C Bugajski ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Marital Quality ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Older Couples ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Objectives Individuals often manage chronic conditions in middle and later life that may diminish well-being. Little is known, however, about discordant conditions (i.e., two or more conditions with competing self-management requirements) among older couples and their links to depressive symptoms. We considered discordant conditions at both the individual level and the couple level (i.e., between spouses), along with their long-term implications for depressive symptoms. Methods The U.S. sample included 1,116 middle-aged and older couples drawn from five waves (2006–2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models evaluated whether individual-level and couple-level discordant chronic health conditions were concurrently linked to depressive symptoms, and whether these associations became stronger over time. Models controlled for age, minority status, education, prior wave depressive symptoms, and each partner’s baseline report of negative marital quality and number of chronic conditions in each wave. Results Wives and husbands reported significantly greater depressive symptoms when they had individual-level discordant conditions about 2 years after baseline, and these links intensified over time. Beyond this association, husbands had significantly greater depressive symptoms when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Discussion Individual-level and couple-level discordant conditions may have lasting implications for depressive symptoms during midlife and older adulthood.

scholarly journals Individual-Level and Couple-Level Discordant Chronic Conditions: Longitudinal Links to Functional Disability

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 455-469
Author(s):  
Courtney A Polenick ◽  
Kira S Birditt ◽  
Angela Turkelson ◽  
Helen C Kales
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Functional Disability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Multiple Chronic Conditions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Growth Curve Models ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Retirement Study

Abstract Background Multiple chronic conditions may erode physical functioning, particularly in the context of complex self-management demands and depressive symptoms. Yet, little is known about how discordant conditions (i.e., those with management requirements that are not directly related and increase care complexity) among couples are linked to functional disability. Purpose We evaluated own and partner individual-level discordant conditions (i.e., discordant conditions within individuals) and couple-level discordant conditions (i.e., discordant conditions between spouses), and their links to levels of and change in functional disability. Methods The U.S. sample included 3,991 couples drawn from nine waves (1998–2014) of the Health and Retirement Study. Dyadic growth curve models determined how individual-level and couple-level discordant conditions were linked to functional disability over time, and whether depressive symptoms moderated these links. Models controlled for age, minority status, education, each partner’s baseline depressive symptoms, and each partner’s number of chronic conditions across waves. Results Wives and husbands had higher initial disability when they had their own discordant conditions and when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Husbands also reported higher initial disability when wives had discordant conditions. Wives had a slower rate of increase in disability when there were couple-level discordant conditions. Depressive symptoms moderated links between disability and discordant conditions at the individual and couple levels. Conclusions Discordant chronic conditions within couples have enduring links to disability that partly vary by gender and depressive symptoms. These findings generate valuable information for interventions to maintain the well-being of couples managing complex health challenges.

Gene sequences, collaboration and analysis of large data sets

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark W. Chase ◽  
Antony V. Cox
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Large Data Sets ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Pool Data ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Technological Improvements ◽  
Taxonomic System

DNA sequences are well suited to international collaboration due to the universality of their simple nature, making them easy to be exchanged and understood. In addition, the output of modern automated sequencers is electronic, making the raw data themselves easy to exchange electronically. Software programs have also been significantly improved, and researchers are tending to focus on standardised ones, which contributes to increased ease of communication. The major problem confronting modern systematics is that large analyses, made possible by all the technological improvements in DNA sequencing and the ability of widely separated researchers to pool data, have been viewed as untenable, simply due to their size. We present evidence here that such large analyses are not as impractical as has been thought, particularly those that are combined analyses of multiple genes. When there is increased signal, as there is in many combined analyses, starting trees generally are much closer to the ultimate shortest trees than any of the individual analyses. Combined with increased ease of analysis, the large angiosperm matrices are providing congruent ideas about relationships, and this makes possible the initiation of the re-classification process, which should also utilise the capacity for rapid information transfer by electronic media. The first truly synthetic and phylogenetic angiosperm classification is in reach, and it should ideally involve all interested systematists in its production, making it also the first broadly collaborative taxonomic system.

First Nations Community Well-Being Research and Large Data Sets: A Respectful Caution

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra S. Drawson ◽  
Aislin R. Mushquash ◽  
Christopher J. Mushquash
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Large Data Sets ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Nations People ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
First Nations People

Health researchers are increasingly encouraged to use large, community-level data sets to examine factors that promote or diminish health, including social determinants. First Nations people in Canada experience disparity in a range of social determinants of health that result in relatively low community well-being scores, when compared to non-First Nations people. However, First Nations people also possess unique protective factors that enhance well-being, such as traditional language usage. Large data sets offer First Nations a new avenue for advocating for supports and services to decrease health inequity while developing culture-based evidence. However, care must be taken to ensure that these data are interpreted appropriately. In this paper, we respectfully offer a cautionary note on the importance of understanding culture and context when conducting First Nations health research with large data sets. We have framed this caution through a narrative presentation of a simple and concrete example. We then outline some approaches to research that can ensure appropriate development of research questions and interpretation of research findings.

More Time on Technology, Less Happiness? Associations Between Digital-Media Use and Psychological Well-Being

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean M. Twenge
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Frequent Users ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Upward Social Comparison ◽  
Variance Explained

Studies using large samples consistently find that more frequent users of digital media are lower in psychological well-being than less frequent users; even data sets used as evidence for weak effects show that twice as many heavy users (vs. light users) are low in well-being. Differences in perspective may stem from the statistics used; I argue that comparing well-being across levels of digital-media use is more useful than the percentage of variance explained, as most studies on digital-media use do not measure other influences on well-being (e.g., genetics, trauma), and these other influences, unlike frequency of digital-media use, are rarely controllable. Nonusers are generally lower in well-being than light users of digital media, however, suggesting that limited use may be beneficial. Longitudinal and experimental studies suggest that at least some of the causation moves from digital-media use to lower well-being. Mechanisms may include the displacement of activities more beneficial to well-being (sleep, face-to-face social interaction), upward social comparison, and cyberbullying.

Living standards in the past: new perspectives on well-being in Asia and Europe By Robert C. Allen, Tommy Bengtsson and Martin Dribe, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xxii + 472. ISBN 0-19-928068-1

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Booth
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Large Data Sets ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Household Surveys ◽  
Absolute Poverty ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Past

We live in an age of increasingly abundant statistical information. The advent of more large data sets obtained from household surveys, as well as from population censuses, labour force surveys, economic censuses and so on, has facilitated reasonably accurate estimates of income and expenditures for households in many parts of the world. These estimates can in turn be used to estimate a number of distributional indicators, as well as estimates of relative and absolute poverty. In addition better census coverage has permitted estimates of infant and child mortality rates, life expectancies, literacy rates and indicators of educational attainment. Such data have in turn been used to estimate composite indicators of wellbeing such as the Human Development Index, not just for entire countries but often for regions within countries as well.

scholarly journals Risks and Opportunities for Youth in the Digital Era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Stavropoulos ◽  
Frosso Motti-Stefanidi ◽  
Mark D. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
The Individual

Abstract. Due to continued groundbreaking digital advancements, Internet use has increased significantly. This has led to a heated debate in relation to weighing the many advantages of the technology against its potentially deleterious effects. To address such questions, experts converge on the need for greater knowledge around the way individual differences, partly shaped by an individual’s unique experiences of engaging with the medium, and partly by other real-life experiences, lead to different developmental trajectories. Consequently, the goals of the present review are to (i) broadly describe differences in digital media applications, users, and usage; (ii) introduce the Cyber-Developmental Framework (CDF), as an overarching framework for understanding individual differences in adaptive and maladaptive digital media use among youth; (iii) delineate the cyber-component of this framework in relation to users’ experience of the digital context, their activity within it, as well as their digital self-presence, which may have an impact on their digital media use; and (iv) summarize priorities and future directions through the lens of this CDF. Within this context, this review particularly emphasizes the effect of digital media use on youth’s psychological well-being. It is argued that the trajectory youth will follow in their use of the Internet is a function of the interplay between their characteristics, their proximate and distal contexts, and the particular features of the digital application(s) that the individual is engaged in. The review points to the need to conduct research focusing on better understanding the developmental and digital-context-related influences on youth’s trajectories of Internet use.

Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1892-1913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean M. Twenge ◽  
Brian H. Spitzberg ◽  
W. Keith Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Extracurricular Activity ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual

In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 ( N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dating, going to movies, and riding in cars for fun. College-bound high school seniors in 2016 (vs. the late 1980s) spent an hour less a day engaging in in-person social interaction, despite declines in paid work and little change in homework or extracurricular activity time. The results suggest that time displacement occurs at the cohort level, with in-person social interaction declining as digital media use increased, but not at the individual level, where in-person social interaction and social media use are positively correlated. Adolescents’ feelings of loneliness increased sharply after 2011. Adolescents low in in-person social interaction and high in social media use reported the most loneliness.

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