Exploring the association between social media use, disordered eating behaviours and self-harm in adolescents.

Mental health refers to an individual’s emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. Increased social media use has been linked to higher rates of mental health conditions, which can affect peoples’ health and wellbeing. In particular, instances of mental health conditions are high in young people. Rates of negative health behaviours, such as self-harm and disordered eating are becoming more common among adolescents, both in the UK and around the world. Whilst there is some evidence which suggests that social media use affects both self-harm and disordered eating behaviours, currently these studies do not include young people from diverse backgrounds, especially those within secondary school age ranges (11-16 years). This is particularly relevant in light of existing evidence that social media use in young people changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, given the potential negative impact for health, exploring the effects social media has on behaviours like disordered eating and self-harm is important. As a result, this work will focus on understanding the effects of social media use on self-harm and disordered eating in this age group. This will help us to understand how we can encourage and promote healthy social media use and provide adequate mental health support for young people.

This proposed study will use data from the BiB: Age of Wonder dataset, which includes responses from young people in Bradford secondary schools, and includes questionnaire data about social media use, self-harm behaviours and eating habits. This study builds on the work, the lead applicant (Amelia Hudak), carried out during their placement year as an intern working as part of the Born in Bradford: Age of Wonder team between September 2024-August 2025. This work also provides a unique insight into how social media may be associated to specific issues like self-harm and disordered eating, in a large cohort sample from a multi-ethnic city, which contributes to existing understanding in the research area.