Written evidence submitted by Jackie Doyle-Price MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention, Department of Health and Social Care (SMH0178)

I am writing to you following my appearance on 13th November for your inquiry “Impact of social media and screen-use on young people’s mental health.”

During the session, I committed to writing to you with the details of the remit used for the Chief Medical Officer’s Evidence Review. The scope of the Review, agreed between the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and researchers at University College London (UCL), is attached. UCL are expected to report to the CMO on this work in December.

22 November 2018

Chief Medical Officer’s Evidence Review on the impact of social media use on children and young people’s mental health

Scope of the Review

• Date of publication of evidence: acknowledging the pre-2008 foundation but focusing on the past ten years;

• Age range in scope: 0-25 years included, with an understanding that the concentration of evidence focuses on 13-18 (there are far fewer studies on children under 11 or over 18);

• Geographical locations in scope: OECD countries;

• English language papers;

• It will include; cyberbullying, online gaming (e.g Playstation) where this includes a social media aspect, sleep problems, problematic internet use (also known as ‘internet addiction’;

• Sedentary behaviour and physical activity are not in the scope.

Definition of social media

Taking into consideration the broader discussion on what currently constitutes social media we explored wider debates and definitions in the field. As discussed, to ensure that we did not include studies focusing on internet use/screen time or older forms of computer mediated communication, such as texting, but were not so narrow that we excluded relevant studies, we opted for the following broad definition of  social media: “The use of internet-based platforms, accessed via mobile phone, mobile applications or web sites, on which individuals can connect with other users to generate content and/or maintain social connections (Ellison and Boyd 2013).

Research questions

• RQ 1: Is there a prospective association between children and young people’s use of social media and mental health and psychosocial outcomes?
• RQ2: Is there a prospective association between cyberbullying via social media and mental health and psychosocial outcomes?
• RQ 3: What are children and young people’s views about the relationship between social media and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing?

Outcomes

Taking into consideration the type of mental health and psychosocial outcomes mostly commonly linked with social media we consider the following to be of primary interest: depression, anxiety, social anxiety, self-esteem, loneliness, social connectedness and social support; and risky behaviours such as substance use, and will map studies against these domains.