SCAMP study finds that more than three hours of daily social media use predicts depression and anxiety in teens

Study finds children using social media for more than three hours a day significantly likely to have depression and anxiety

Words by Team MyndStories

Published August 12, 2026 · 1 min read

SCAMP study finds that more than three hours of daily social media use predicts depression and anxiety in teens

A longitudinal cohort study from Imperial College London, published in BMC Medicine, has produced one of the more carefully designed pieces of evidence to date on social media and adolescent mental health. The study, drawn from the SCAMP cohort of more than 2,300 children in London schools, found that children in Year 7 (ages 11 to 12) who used social networking sites for more than three hours a day were significantly more likely to develop symptoms of depression and anxiety by Years 9 and 10 (ages 13 to 15).

The mechanism is what makes this study useful for parents and clinicians: the effect was largely mediated by sleep. Heavy social media use in the evening pushed bedtimes later and reduced total sleep, and that sustained sleep loss was the strongest pathway to later depression and anxiety.

As Indian coverage from Storyboard18 noted, the research reframes social media not as a direct cause of poor mental health but as a disruptor of the basics that adolescent mental health depends on.

The researchers are clear that the relationship is complex. They have already moved into intervention work, piloting a school program called Scroll Smart that teaches children about moderation and sleep hygiene. They also caution that their data, collected between 2014 and 2018, predates the rise of short-form video, which has changed both screen-time patterns and the kinds of content adolescents consume

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