From motivation to experience: Blurred boundaries in the measurement of adolescent social media engagement
Abstract
Despite extensive research on the role of social media use in adolescent mental health, fundamental questions remain about what current self-report measures capture. We systematically reviewed 96 adolescent self-report measures of social media use, comprising 1,526 unique items. Through content analysis, we examined what measures assess and the behavioural and psychological processes through which they are operationalised. We found substantial conceptual overlap between measures, particularly those assessing problematic use and addiction, alongside discrepancies between item content and young people’s reported experiences. Importantly, current measures were found to frequently combine motivation, behaviour, experience, and mindset, despite these psychological behaviours and processes being theoretically distinguished. This raises questions about whether existing measures meaningfully test the hypothesises mechanisms and theoretical frameworks underpinning social media and mental health research. Our findings highlight the need to move beyond content-focused approaches to measurement, towards greater attention to how social media is operationalised and recognition of its potentially dynamic and interdependent nature.
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BibTeX
@misc{panayiotou2026from,
title = {{From motivation to experience: Blurred boundaries in the measurement of adolescent social media engagement}},
author = {Margarita Panayiotou and Emily Banwell and Louise Black and Jo Hickman Dunne and Jade Davies and Suzanne Hamilton and Brittany I Davidson and Lukas J. Gunschera and Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen and Turi Reiten Finserås},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/tsu7m_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/tsu7m_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From motivation to experience: Blurred boundaries in the measurement of adolescent social media engagement
AU - Margarita Panayiotou
AU - Emily Banwell
AU - Louise Black
AU - Jo Hickman Dunne
AU - Jade Davies
AU - Suzanne Hamilton
AU - Brittany I Davidson
AU - Lukas J. Gunschera
AU - Amanda Iselin Olesen Andersen
AU - Turi Reiten Finserås
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/tsu7m_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/tsu7m_v1/
AB - Despite extensive research on the role of social media use in adolescent mental health, fundamental questions remain about what current self-report measures capture. We systematically reviewed 96 adolescent self-report measures of social media use, comprising 1,526 unique items. Through content analysis, we examined what measures assess and the behavioural and psychological processes through which they are operationalised. We found substantial conceptual overlap between measures, particularly those assessing problematic use and addiction, alongside discrepancies between item content and young people’s reported experiences. Importantly, current measures were found to frequently combine motivation, behaviour, experience, and mindset, despite these psychological behaviours and processes being theoretically distinguished. This raises questions about whether existing measures meaningfully test the hypothesises mechanisms and theoretical frameworks underpinning social media and mental health research. Our findings highlight the need to move beyond content-focused approaches to measurement, towards greater attention to how social media is operationalised and recognition of its potentially dynamic and interdependent nature.
ER -