Scrolling, Chatting, and Posting: Longitudinal Changes in Distinct Social Media Behaviors and Their Relationship With Psychological Distress and Mental Wellbeing in Adolescents

ABSTRACT Introduction Over the past two decades, the prevalence of psychological distress and mental disorders among adolescents has markedly increased. This coincides with the advent and rapid adoption of social media, resulting in a proliferation of research examining time spent on social media and its relationship with mental health. However, to date, findings have been inconclusive. The active/passive model of social media behavior theorizes that “passive” social media behaviors (e.g., scrolling/watching) are associated with worse mental health outcomes than “active” behaviors (e.g., messaging or posting). The present study investigates both cross‐sectional and longitudinal relationships between active and passive social media behaviors and both psychological distress and mental wellbeing, while also examining differential effects of gender. Methods This study uses data from two assessment waves (2021 and 2022) of a large adolescent Australian data set ( n = 3205, T1 mean age 14.6 [SD: 0.62], 53.6% cisgender female/gender diverse). Three distinct behaviors were examined: (1) messaging/video calling friends (active), (2) posting content (active), and (3) scrolling or viewing content (passive). Results There was little evidence of a longitudinal relationship between 12‐month change in any of the social media behaviors and psychological distress or mental wellbeing. While there were gender differences in the prevalence of the social media behaviors, there was no evidence of a gender interaction. Conclusions Findings suggest the need to move beyond the active and passive model of social media behavior as a framework to explain the relationship between social media and adolescent mental health. We discuss several new directions for research and policy.