Irritability and Social Media Use in US Adults

Importance  Efforts to understand the complex association between social media use and mental health have focused on depression, with little investigation of other forms of negative affect, such as irritability and anxiety.

Objective  To characterize the association between self-reported use of individual social media platforms and irritability among US adults.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This survey study analyzed data from 2 waves of the COVID States Project, a nonprobability web-based survey conducted between November 2, 2023, and January 8, 2024, and applied multiple linear regression models to estimate associations with irritability. Survey respondents were aged 18 years and older.

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