The Digital Epidemiology of Social Media Behaviour and Mental Wellbeing in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

Abstract

There is growing political and public interest in the impact of social media on mental health and wellbeing. However, legislation or interventions aiming to address any potential risks should be informed by high quality evidence. Most previous studies exploring the relationship between social media and mental health focus on capturing the frequency at which people use these platforms, but
this approach ignores the wide variety of ways people can engage with and experience social media. In addition, many studies rely upon measuring social media use with self-report questionnaires, which are limited in their accuracy and the aspects of social media that they can capture.

More studies are required that explore the relationship between specific social media behaviours and mental health, using data collected directly from these platforms. In this thesis, I present five studies that aim to address these challenges using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which includes both repeated questionnaire measures of mental
health and data collected directly from Twitter. These studies predominantly use adult participants, ranging in age from 27 to 73 years old. I find evidence that nighttime use, and the dynamics of emotion expression are associated with mental health outcomes. I also explore how the offline characteristics of participants correlate with these relationships and behaviours. In summary, my
findings highlight how longitudinal cohorts with linked social media data can be used to provide more nuanced evidence on the relationship between social media use and mental health.

Date of Award	17 Mar 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Oliver S Davis (Supervisor), Edwin D. Simpson (Supervisor), Claire M A Haworth (Supervisor) & Nello Cristianini (Supervisor)