Associations Between Intentions for Affective Social Media Content Choices and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence: A Cross-Sectional Investigation of Media Response Styles as Moderators

The central role of social media in adolescents' lives and the concern regarding the well-being of these young media users has attracted much scholarly attention. While studies have generally examined relationships between the frequency of media use and well-being, more recent research has started to focus on the relationship between affective experiences with media use and adolescent well-being. The current study examined cross-sectional associations between intentions for mood-related affective social media content choices and depressive symptoms among Belgian adolescents (N = 157, 65.6% girls, M-age = 16.63, age range = 14-19 years). Additionally, we examined the moderating role of response styles to positive and negative affective media content. Results showed that intentions for affective mood-related social media content choices were generally not associated with the level of concurrent depressive symptoms in adolescents. A significant positive interaction effect was found for higher levels of media enhancing and happy social media content choices in a happy mood. Results consistently pointed toward direct associations between the media response styles and depressive symptoms.