Study shows social media can help make kids happier and more resilient

CHILDREN who use social media can be more resilient, happier and even more engaged with their friends in real life, leading psychologists say.

Tara, 7, Lomani, 7, and Gypsy, 10, enjoying a day at Clontarf Beach. Picture: Justin Lloyd

CHILDREN who use social media can be more resilient, happier and even more engaged with their friends in real life, leading psychologists say.

It throws cold water on a recent UK study which found that tweens aged between 10 and 15 were significantly less happy when they used social networks.

Child and adolescent psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said good Australian research had actually found that teenagers who used social media could be “less depressed and more resilient”.

A study shows kids using social media might be less depressed and more resilient. Picture: Justin Lloyd

There was a strong desire to be connected with people of the same age and social media allowed that to happen, he said. However, he said he didn’t think anyone under the age of 13 should have access.

Jocelyn Brewer, a psychologist who specialises in social media, said it had become a central tool to the way young people communicated and connected.

“With any social or cultural phenomenon there are impacts, both positive and negative — depending on how the tool or device is used,” she said.

Their statements contrast with a UK study released this month which found tweens who used social media more had greater “negative feelings” associated with school, school work, appearance, family and life overall — with friendships being the only area positively affected.

The UK Institute of Labor Economics questioned 4000 tweens aged 10 to 15 between 2010 and 2014. It found just one hour a day chatting on social networks was found to have a “not trivial” negative effect on the overall life satisfaction of tweens, except in the area of friends.

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But Ms Brewer said that there was more to social media than the time spent and you needed to look at what a child was actually consuming online.

Seaforth mum Kari Ferguson said her 10-year-old daughter Gypsy didn’t have any access to social media yet. She preferred to take her daughter to the beach or for her to jump on the trampoline.

Later it would be kept at a reasonable level, she said.

“I don’t even have a computer. They are out all the time and never inside ... she is too young, I don’t think kids should have stuff like that until they are 14 or 15,” Ms Ferguson said.