Health · Medical Research · 11 hrs ago
Swedish study links teens’ messaging partners with well-being
A survey of 3,034 Swedish 15-year-olds found different well-being patterns linked to whom they messaged.
Teens who frequently messaged close friends or a wider circle of friends they knew offline tended to score higher on a well-being test.
Contact with friends known only online was linked to lower scores, even among teens who messaged them weekly.
The study combined two rounds of a long-running international survey, from 2017–2018 and 2021–2022, and measured well-being with questions about feelings over the previous two weeks.
The findings show that messaging is not uniformly negative, but the differences were small and the survey captured a pattern at one point in time, so it cannot show that messaging caused the scores.
Researchers say parents should ask whom teens message as well as how much, while the study does not establish that all online-only friendships are harmful.
A study of 3,034 Swedish 15-year-olds linked messaging with offline friends to higher well-being and messaging with online-only friends to lower scores.
The study found that frequent messaging with a wider group of friends remained associated with higher well-being after adjustments for several factors.
Teens who messaged friends they had met only online weekly to daily or several times a day had lower scores than those who rarely did.
The survey captured each teen at one point in time, so the findings show associations and cannot establish cause.
The study’s senior author said parents should consider whom teens message as well as how much time they spend messaging.
- Who
- Researchers studied 3,034 Swedish 15-year-olds. The team included Viviane Straatmann, Madeleine Björnsdotter Orfanidou and Kenisha Russell Jonsson.
- What
- The study linked messaging with offline friends to higher well-being and messaging with online-only friends to lower scores.
- When
- The survey data came from the 2017–2018 and 2021–2022 school years.
- Where
- Sweden.
- Why
- The study examined how well-being was associated with messaging different kinds of friends. It cannot establish that messaging caused the differences.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
One round of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey was conducted.
A second survey round was conducted.
Researchers pooled the survey data to examine messaging and well-being among Swedish teens.
- Study participants
- 3,034 Swedish 15-year-olds
- Survey rounds
- 2017–2018 and 2021–2022 school years
- Well-being measure
- Seven questions about the previous two weeks
- Frequent messaging with close friends
- About 1.6 points higher before adjustments; the difference was no longer statistically significant after adjustments
- Messaging online-only friends weekly to daily
- About 0.9 points lower than rarely messaging them
- Messaging online-only friends several times a day
- About 0.7 points lower than rarely messaging them
What people are saying
Online communication can be a valuable way to maintain and strengthen friendships with people adolescents know offline