Social media is extremely widespread today. In my master's thesis, I investigated the associations between social media use and the mental health of high school students. I focused on the effects of time spent on social media and the purposes of its use, with particular interest in the moderating role of purposes of use in the relationship between time spent on social media and indicators of mental (ill)health. The study sample consisted of 516 high school students aged between 15 and 19 years. I employed a quantitative approach. Mental (ill)health was assessed using The Mini Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (The Mini-DASS scale; Monteiro et al., 2023; adapted by Avsec et al., 2022) and the University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA; Russell, 1996; adapted by Avsec and Bajec, personal correspondence). To assess the purposes of use, I translated and validated the Scale of Motives for Using Social Networking Sites (SMU-SNS; Pertegal et al., 2019). The results showed that time spent on social media, regardless of purpose, does not play a significant role in mental (ill)health. Purposes of use, such as social connection, social recognition, and seeking new friendships, were associated with poorer mental health, with small to medium effect sizes. In contrast, purposes, such as following and monitoring others, as well as academic use, were linked to better mental health although with small effect sizes. Key findings also included the effects of gender and an educational program, with boys and students in vocational schools reporting poorer mental health. The study confirms the complexity of the relationships between digital behavior and mental health and opens up opportunities for further research in this field. With this research, I contributed to the advancement of methodological approaches in studying digital behavior and opened possibilities for developing preventive and intervention strategies to support adolescents' mental health.
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