Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections: Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, 2017/2018

Strong, positive relationships are critical to the healthy development of adolescents in their transition to adulthood. Using 2017/2018 reports from the nationally representative Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, this study examined the strength, consistency and significance of associations between “intensive” social media use (frequent use to connect with other people) and “problematic” social media use (use that depicts addictive qualities) and available measures of adolescent relationships and connections.