Luisa Fassi

Thank you for hosting me! :)

Social Media Use and Adolescents’ Mental Health: What do we actually know? Guest Talk Media Psychology & Methods Division Monday, 03 November 2025 14.00 – 15.00, AND-3-23 Luisa Fassi is a Graduate Student with the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at University of Cambridge, UK Biography Luisa Fassi is a PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge, working across the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and the Department of Psychiatry. Her doctoral research, which was recently recognised by the Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award, focuses on studying the relationship between social media use and adolescents' mental health. Abstract Mental health conditions affect one in seven adolescents globally, and social media has become a central part of young people’s daily lives. These parallel trends have sparked widespread concern, yet research linking social media use to youth mental health remains mixed and often lacks clinical relevance. In this lecture, I present findings from two complementary studies that aim to bridge this gap and inform both clinical and societal responses. The first is a pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis that synthesizes 15 years of research on the relationship between social media use and internalising symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety) in both community and clinical samples. The second study is a registered report that analyses a nationally representative UK sample to examine differences in social media use among adolescents with and without mental health conditions. Unlike most studies that rely on single-questionnaire assessments, this study integrates clinical diagnoses made by professional raters based on multi-informant interviews. Together, these findings highlight the need for more targeted psychoeducation, clinical assessments, and interventions that reflect adolescents’ diverse lived experiences when it comes to social media use.

Looking forward to @fassiluisa.bsky.social‘s talk at our department next week :)

Very exciting to present our latest findings on social media use and youth mental health at @ecnp.eu in Amsterdam!

📚 An insightful Educational Update Session at #ECNP2025 on how digital media shapes youth mental health. 🌐🧠
#psychiatry #neuroscience @fassiluisa.bsky.social @giselasugranyes.bsky.social

I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months.

Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/

Researcher of the Month: Luisa Fassi Discusses Researcher of the Month: Luisa Fassi Discusses Social Media Use in Teens With and Without Mental Health Conditions Dr Kathy Weston's Get a Grip! Parenting Podcast · Episode

I am honoured to have been selected as Researcher of the Month by Tooled Up Education! ⬇️

You can find the podcast interview where I discuss my latest research here: open.spotify.com/episode/7God...

And the article with a summary here: www.tooledupeducation.com/research/do-...

The impacts of loneliness in young people £1.5 million investment into the impacts of loneliness on the brains of young people.

Absolutely thrilled to have been awarded an 8-year Wellcome Career Development Award to investigate how loneliness affects young people's brains and minds!! Grateful for the support and excited for the road ahead!
@wellcometrust.bsky.social

www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/29...

Massive congrats and so well deserved!⭐

Very excited for this preprint to be out, led by the stellar @tommetherell.com ⬇️

Leveraging data linkage of secondary care records, we examine the longitudinal relationship between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses.

Wrapping up #ica25 with @rzhprfshr.bsky.social presenting our work with @joebayer.bsky.social reviewing the research under the broad umbrella of “social connection”. And perfect timing because the paper was published TODAY at @natrevpsychol.nature.com 🥳 rdcu.be/erayE

Thank you @tamsinford.bsky.social for your support in this journey!

Thanks 🙏⭐

Thank you @lakens.bsky.social! Thanks for the very insightful chats over the course of the phd :)

Very excited and grateful to receive the 2025 Psychology of Technology Dissertation Award for my PhD thesis!

A special thanks to the Institute, the organisers and my wonderful PhD supervisors @orbenamy.bsky.social & @tamsinford.bsky.social.

More info: psychoftech.substack.com/p/congratula...

Ecological momentary assessment data are everywhere these days. In psychology, dynamic structural equation models (DSEMs) are particularly attractive for analyzing such data. In this paper Ethan McCormick and I show how you can easily incorporate nonlinear trends and cycles using splines.

Social media interventions to improve well-being - Nature Human Behaviour In this Perspective, the authors review current interventions on social media use among adolescents and propose a new theoretical model based on self-determination theory to guide the effective design...

New Perspective out in @nathumbehav.nature.com today with co-author @orbenamy.bsky.social!

We propose a new framework for designing 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 that support well-being, grounded in self-determination theory 🧵

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you for sharing @omidvebrahimi.bsky.social!

Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions - Nature Human Behaviour Using a nationally representative UK sample of adolescents with clinical-level mental health symptoms, this Registered Report examined differences in social media use. The results suggest that adolesc...

What's the relationship between social media use and mental health problems in adolescents? A Registered Report by @fassiluisa.bsky.social et al examined this question using a nationally representative UK sample. #socialmedia #mentalhealth
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@olademk.bsky.social could I be added? Thank you! :)

📊 New research led by Luisa Fassi (@fassiluisa.bsky.social) and involving Prof Andy Przybylski (@shuhbillskee.bsky.social) of the OII reveals that adolescents with mental health conditions engage with social media differently than their peers.

Important new study about social media use in vulnerable young people:

Thank you!

Great new study that will contribute usefully to the social media and mental health question. It uses more detailed assessment of both social media use and mental health, which has been a bit issue with previous research.
This study shows that...

(cont)

Thank you for this great summary @lucyfoulkes.bsky.social!

Very much echo the key takeaway that some offline experiences and symptoms for youth with mental health conditions are mirrored in their online lives.

Adolescents with mental health conditions use social media differently than their peers, study suggests One of the first studies in this area to use clinical-level diagnoses reveals a range of differences between young people with and without mental health

For a lay summary: www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

I am so excited that this is now out. An absolutely **mammoth** amount of work, please give this thread a read ⬇️💪💪

🙏 Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors for this big team effort:
@amandaferg.bsky.social
@shuhbillskee.bsky.social
@tamsinford.bsky.social
@orbenamy.bsky.social

❗The data is cross-sectional, so we can’t draw conclusions about causality, including the effects of social media use on mental health conditions or vice versa.

⏭️ These findings offer initial insights for clinical practice and future research on social media use in youth clinical groups.

💡Our results show that adolescents with clinical-level mental health symptoms, especially those with internalising conditions, engage with social media in distinct ways.

What do we find? (4/4)

4️⃣ When only considering adolescents with mental health conditions, those with internalising vs. externalising conditions reported:
– More social comparison.
– Less happiness with their number of online friends.