Testing a Mechanistic Model of Attention to Social Media Content and Sleep Disturbance in the Escalation of Social Anxiety in Adolescents

Project Summary This R01 project proposes to test a developmentally informed, mechanistic model of the relations between social media (SoMe) use and social anxiety symptoms (SA) in adolescence, examining attention perturbations and sleep as key variables that impact risk. There is a steep increase in both SoMe use and SA in adolescence. Although total self-reported time spent using SoMe has been associated with SA in adolescence, findings are mixed and the literature suffers from well-documented assessment and design limitations. Consequently, “little is known about the mechanisms by which SoMe use may impact risk” (RFA-MH-23-115). There is a critical need for longitudinal research using sophisticated approaches to assess SoMe use and test a mechanistic model of its influence on SA in adolescents. This project responds directly to that need. Guided by developmental cognitive neuroscience, our model posits perturbed attention to social content and key features of sleep disturbance (poor perceived sleep quality and poor sleep efficiency) as central variables on the path from SoMe use to SA. Attention acts as a gatekeeper through which social information is selected for processing, thus shaping how adolescents experience their social world. Exciting data from members of our team document that perturbed attention to social content is related to higher levels of SA and sleep disturbance. Additional data document that SoMe use, especially at bedtime, is related to sleep disturbance and sleep disturbance is related to SA in adolescence. Hispanic/Latine adolescents are particularly impacted, as they experience anxiety and sleep disturbance at higher rates and are more likely to report using SoMe “almost constantly,” compared with other ethnic groups. Together, these data position us to provide the first test of a developmentally informed, mechanistic model wherein: bedtime SoMe use predicts SA and sleep disturbance (Aim 1) -- when adolescents show perturbed attention to social content (i.e., moderation) (Aim 2) -- and sleep disturbance mediates the relationship between SoMe use and SA (Aim 3). We will test this model in 252 biologically male/female, predominately (75%) Hispanic/Latine adolescents ages 13-17 years, using an accelerated longitudinal design, assessing adolescents four times over 18 months. Addressing assessment limitations that characterize prior work, we will use passive sensing and ecological momentary assessment to characterize the timing, location, and behaviors of SoMe use; established eye-tracking paradigms to measure attention to social content; and subjective (daily diary) and objective (actigraphy) methods to measure sleep disturbance. This project will provide a rigorous test of a mechanistic model of the escalation of SA in adolescents. It also will identify modifiable targets (features of SoMe use, sleep, and attention) that we would pursue in future projects to prevent the escalation of social anxiety symptom severity in adolescence.