Skip to main content
. 2023 Aug 11;25:e44922. doi: 10.2196/44922

Table 3.

Effectiveness of social media use interventions on mental well-being sorted by intervention type.

Study, year Outcomes Measures Comparison measurement Postintervention-reported values (unless labeled) Effect size (Cohen d) and interpretation Main finding Direction of effect
Interventions involving full abstinence from social media

Brown and Kuss [36], 2020

  1. FOMOa

  2. Mental well-being

  1. FoMOsb

  2. WEMWBSc

 Mean difference between before and after the intervention (SD)

  1. −3.20 (5.22)d

  2. 4.00 (5.97)d

  1. 0.55 (Me)

  2. 0.47 (Sf)

 Significant improvements after the intervention ↑g

Fioravanti et al [41], 2020

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Positive affect

  3. Negative affect

  1. SWLSh

  2. PANASi

  3. PANAS

 Calculated mean difference between IGj and CGk for women and men

  • Women

  1. 2.40l

  2. 5.45l

  3. −0.30

  • Men

  1. 1.90

  2. 0.50

  3. −2.25

  • Women

  1. 0.81 (Lm)

  2. 1.09 (L)

  3. 0.04 (Xn)

  • Men

  1. 0.36 (S)

  2. 0.07 (X)

  3. 0.31 (S)

 Significantly improved life satisfaction and positive affect for women but not for men in the IG compared with those in the CG ↕o

Hall et al [42], 2019

  1. Mental well-being

  2. Loneliness

  1. Four items from the SF-36p

  2. A short scale for measuring loneliness in large surveys [57]

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 4.79 (1.31)

  2. 2.57 (1.17)

  • IG

  1. 4.81 (1.31)

  2. 2.57 (1.24)

  1. 0.02 (X)

  2. 0.00 (X)

 No significant difference for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↔q

Hanley et al [43], 2019

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Positive affect

  3. Negative affect

  1. Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire-18

  2. PANAS

  3. PANAS

 Standardized coefficients from multiple regression

  1. 0.05

  2. −0.16

  3. 0.10

  1. 0.01 (X)

  2. 0.32 (S)

  3. 0.20 (S)

 No significant difference for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↔

Lambert et al [44], 2022

  1. Mental well-being

  2. Depression

  3. Anxiety

  1. WEMWBS

  2. Patient Health Questionnaire depression scale

  3. GAD-7r

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 45.05 (8.06)

  2. 6.95 (4.45)

  3. 5.94 (4.30)

  • IG

  1. 55.93 (7.65)d

  2. 4.84 (3.89)d

  3. 3.88 (3.84)l

  1. 1.38 (L)

  2. 0.50 (M)

  3. 0.51 (M)

 Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↑

Mitev et al [45], 2021 Mental well-being Daily satisfaction question, self-esteem scale, and positive and negative affect scales were combined to create an overall composite score of participants’ well-being F value and partial eta–squared value F2,416=0.11; P=.89; ηp2=.001 0.06 (X) No significant difference for the IG compared with the CG ↔

Mosquera et al [46], 2020

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Depression

  1. One question taken from the OECDs Better Life Initiative

  2. One question taken from the OECD Better Life Initiative

 Mean difference between before and after the intervention (SD)

  1. (3.36)

  2. −0.57 (2.97)l

 —t Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG for depression but not for life satisfaction ↕

Przybylski et al [47], 2021

  1. Positive affect

  2. Negative affect

  3. Self-esteem

  1. PANAS

  2. PANAS

  3. Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale (10-item version)

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 2.78 (0.78)u

  2. 1.71 (0.69)

  3. 3.01 (0.49)

  • IG

  1. 2.72 (0.81)

  2. 1.81 (0.71)

  3. 2.99 (0.50)

  1. 0.08 (X)

  2. 0.14 (X)

  3. 0.04 (X)

 No significant difference for the IG compared with the CG ↔

Tromholt [48], 2016

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Depression or emotion

  1. Life satisfaction questionnaire developed for the investigation

  2. Four items from the CES-Dv and 4 items from PANAS combined

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 7.74 (1.43)

  2. 33.99 (6.81)

  • IG

  1. 8.11 (1.23)d

  2. 36.21 (6.09)d

  1. 0.37 (S)

  2. 1.22 (L)

 Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↑

Turel et al [49], 2018

  1. Absolute stress

  2. Relative stress

  1. PSSw

  2. PSS

 Marginal means (95% CI)

  • CG

  1. 0.50 (0.33 to 0.68)

  2. 0.09 (0.04 to 0.15)

  • IG

  1. 0.72 (0.62 to 0.82)l

  2. 0.14 (0.10 to 0.17)

  1. 0.18 (X)

  2. 0.13 (X)

 Significantly reduced absolute stress in the IG but not relative stress compared with the CG ↕

Vally and D’Souza [50], 2019

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Positive affect

  3. Negative affect

  4. Loneliness

  5. Stress

  1. SWLS

  2. PANAS

  3. PANAS

  4. Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults

  5. PSS

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 5.16 (1.14)

  2. 3.31 (0.81)

  3. 2.36 (0.84)

  4. 3.08 (1.13)

  5. 1.78 (0.51)

  • IG

  1. 4.37 (1.26)l

  2. 3.34 (0.63)

  3. 2.60 (0.89)l

  4. 3.81 (1.30)l

  5. 1.79 (0.49)

  1. 0.66 (M)

  2. 0.04 (X)

  3. 0.28 (S)

  4. 0.60 (M)

  5. 0.02 (X)

 Significantly reduced life satisfaction and increased negative feelings and loneliness for the IG compared with the CG but no difference in positive affect or stress ↕

Vanman et al [51], 2018

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Stress

  3. Positive affect

  4. Negative affect

  5. Loneliness

  1. SWLS

  2. PSS

  3. PANAS

  4. PANAS

  5. Short form of the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults

 Mean difference between before and after the intervention (SD)

  • CG

  1. 1.85 (4.97)

  • Means not reported for other outcomes

  • IG

  1. −0.93l (5.61)

  • Means not reported for other outcomes

 0.54 (M) The IG had significantly reduced life satisfaction compared with the CG but no other outcomes were significantly different ↕
Therapy-based interventions

Chen et al [22], 2022

  1. Depression

  2. Loneliness

  1. CES-D-20x

  2. ULS-8y

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 15.70 (9.73)

  2. 17.07 (3.52)

  • IG

  1. 3.00 (4.65)d

  2. 13.17 (3.04)d

  1. 1.67 (L)

  2. 1.19 (L)

 Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↑

Hou et al [40], 2019

  1. Self-esteem

  2. Mental health and well-being

  1. Chinese version of the Self-Esteem Scale

  2. Questionnaire developed from GHQ-30z

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 28.35 (3.81)

  2. 12.35 (4.58)

  • IG

  1. 30.67 (3.17)d

  2. 15.71(3.89)l

  1. 0.66 (M)

  2. 0.79 (M)

 Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↑

O’Connell [35], 2020

  1. Mindfulness

  2. FOMO

  3. Mental well-being

  4. Depression

  5. Anxiety

  1. MAASaa

  2. FoMOs

  3. PWBab

  4. CES-D

  5. Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale

 Mean difference between before and after the intervention (N/Rac)

  1. −0.32l

  2. −0.046

  3. −0.052

  4. 0.36

  5. 0.95

  1. 0.32 (S)

  2. 0.05 (X)

  3. 0.07 (X)

  4. 0.03 (X)

  5. 0.12 (X)

 Significant reduction in mindfulness after the intervention but no difference in FOMO, well-being, depression, or anxiety ↕

Esmaeili Rad and Ahmadi [38], 2018

  1. Depression

  2. Anxiety

  3. Life satisfaction

  1. BDIad

  2. BDI

  3. SWLS

 Mean rankae (N/R)

  • CG

  1. 50.96

  2. 48.74

  3. 45.56

  • IG

  1. 42.30d

  2. 43.71d

  3. 54.72d

  1. 0.84 (L)

  2. 0.97 (L)

  3. 1.04 (L)

 Significant improvements within the IG across all measures ↑

Throuvala et al [39], 2020

  1. Mindfulness

  2. Stress

  3. Anxiety

  4. FOMO

  1. MAAS

  2. PSS

  3. GAD-7

  4. FoMOs

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. 3.37 (0.76)

  2. 27.94 (5.24)

  3. 17.44 (4.42)

  4. 3.32 (1.22)

  • IG

  1. 3.97 (0.69)d

  2. 24.10 (4.63)d

  3. 14.75 (4.43)d

  4. 2.86 (1.16)d

  1. 0.82 (L)

  2. 0.77 (M)

  3. 0.60 (M)

  4. 0.39 (S)

 Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG across all measures ↑

Zhou et al [37], 2021 Life satisfaction SWLS Mean (SD)

  • CG

  • 4.37 (1.06)

  • IG

  • 4.90 (1.04)l

 0.50 (M) Significant improvements for the IG compared with the CG ↑
Interventions involving limited social media use

Brailovskaia et al [52], 2020

  1. Life satisfaction

  2. Depression

  1. SWLS

  2. DASS-21af

 Mean difference (95% CI) between the groups

  1. −0.57 (−1.95 to 0.81)

  2. 0.15 (−0.90 to 1.20)

  1. 0.10 (X)

  2. 0.03 (X)

 No significant improvement in the IG compared with the CG across both measures ↔

Graham et al [53], 2021 Well-being WEMWBS Mean (SD)

  • CG

  • 3.43 (0.72)

  • IG

  • 3.51 (0.64)

 0.01 (X) No significant improvement in the IG compared with the CG ↔

Hunt et al [54], 2018

  1. FOMO

  2. Loneliness

  3. Anxiety

  4. High depression

  5. Low depression

  6. Self-esteem

  7. Mental well-being

  1. FoMOs

  2. ULS-8

  3. Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory

  4. BDI

  5. BDI

  6. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

  7. PWB

 Mean

  • CG

  1. N/R

  2. N/R

  3. N/R

  4. 22.83

  5. 4.67

  6. N/R

  7. N/R

  • IG

  1. N/R

  2. N/Rl

  3. N/R

  4. 14.50l

  5. 4.10l

  6. N/R

  7. N/R

 — Significant improvements in depression and loneliness for the IG compared with the CG; no significance for other outcomes ↕

Hunt et al [55], 2021 Depression BDI Mean (SD)

  • CG

  • 28.63 (5.04)

  • AGag

  • 16.29 (5.22)

  • IG

  • 14.80 (5.41)l

 — Significant improvements for IG participants who were highly depressed compared with CG and AG participants ↑

Thai et al [56], 2021

  1. Anxiety

  2. Depression

  1. GAD-7

  2. Revised CES-D

 Mean (SD)

  • CG

  1. N/R

  2. N/R

  • IG

  1. 8.54 (4.27)

  2. N/R

  1. 0.62 (M)

  2. 0.57 (M)

 No significant improvement in the IG compared with the CG across both measures ↔

aFOMO: fear of missing out.

bFoMOs: Fear of Missing Out Scale.

cWEMWBS: Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale.

dP<.001.

eM: medium.

fS: small.

gBeneficial effect.

hSWLS: Satisfaction With Life Scale.

iPANAS: Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

jIG: intervention group.

kCG: control group.

lP<.05.

mL: Large.

nX: negligible.

oMixed effects.

pSF-36: 36-item Short Form Health Survey.

qNo effect.

rGAD-7: General Anxiety Disorder-7.

sOECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

tNot available (number in each group was not specified to calculate effect size).

uAverage mean and SD reported across the 3 countries because the relationship among variables was the same across the countries. Estimates based on unadjusted means because the adjusted means were not provided.

vCES-D: Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.

wPSS: Perceived Stress Scale.

xCES-D-20: Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, 20-item version.

yULS-8: University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale.

zGHQ-30: General Health Questionnaire-30.

aaMAAS: Mindful Attention Awareness Scale.

abPWB: Psychological Well-Being Scale.

acN/R: not reported.

adBDI: Beck Depression Inventory.

aeComparing the IG between before the intervention and after. The effect of the intervention between the IG and the CG was not reported and could not be calculated.

afDASS-21: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21.

agAG: active group (limited use of social media at 30 minutes per day plus 1 action every 3 minutes, eg, posting and replying).