Social media ‘link’ to young women’s mental health

The start of last decade saw the beginning of two things – the rapid rise of social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, and the rapid fall in the mental health of young women. Coincidence?

A decline in mental health among young women has coincided with the rise of Instagram and Snapchat, a new study finds.

Young women born since the late 1990s have “strikingly lower” mental health than older women and all males, the sharp downturn coinciding with the rise of Instagram and Snapchat, a new study has found.

Gen Z females aged 15-24 reported an average mental health score of 62 per cent in 2022, a drop of 11 percentage points from 2011, economic research group the e61 Institute reports. This compares with a seven percentage-point fall for males the same age from 74.5 per cent to 67.5 per cent, its crunching of Household, Income, Labour Dynamics in Australia survey data finds.

In comparison, between 2001 and 2011 the average self-reported mental health assessments of young people were relatively constant, with males sitting around 75 per cent and females consistently above 70 per cent.

For people aged 25 to 64 there has been a much gentler drop-off in mental health for men and women across the past decade, though the decline for females has been greater.

The report, Some of Us R Not OK: The Decline in Youth Mental Health, is e61’s submission to the federal Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, which is looking into the influence and effects of social media.

The report says it offers the committee “data driven evidence” on the mental health of young Australians, highlighting the correlation between lower mental health and social isolation among young women and social media’s increasing prevalence. It notes Instagram launched in 2010, Snapchat in 2011, and that Facebook introduced a “like” button in 2009.

“Our research finds that youth mental health was stable but then began falling sharply after 2012 which coincides with the time when photo and video-sharing social media platforms became widely popular,” report co-author and e61 research director Gianni La Cava said.

“While more data and research are needed to say that social media is causing declining mental health among young Australians, the coincident timing of the decline suggests there is a link.

“We find that young women born since the late 1990s (Generation Z) – who use social media more than any other group – have strikingly lower mental health than older women and all men.

“This fits existing data showing they experience higher rates of mental health disorders, greater need for help from mental health professionals and increasing rates of mental health-related hospitalisations.”

Young women’s mental health has declined during the period Instagram and Snapchat have grown, a new report says.

The study notes that young women are heavier users of social media than males the same age. HILDA data shows 90 per cent of women aged 15-24 uses social media every day or most days.

For 15 to 24-year-old males it is 75 per cent, and 62 per cent of women over 25 and 46 per cent of men over 25.

The parliamentary committee is examining a range of social media issues including the use of age verification to protect Australian children from social media and how to deal with harmful or illegal content disseminated over social media including scams, child sexual abuse and violent extremist material.

The committee will report in November this year.