An interdisciplinary research framework for social media and youth health [White paper] University of Sydney & Yale School of Medicine

Abstract

Policymakers, schools, families and clinicians are increasingly looking to take action to protect young people from potential harms associated with social media use. Australia’s national ban on social media accounts for people under the age of 16 represents one of the largest-scale interventions to date, and similar bans are now under consideration in jurisdictions around the world. Despite public and political support for such interventions, evidence of their effectiveness, and the impact of social media on young people’s health more broadly, is limited and contested. Causal mechanisms, platform-specific effects, mediating factors and the effectiveness of various interventions are not well understood. This white paper presents an interdisciplinary research framework for social media and youth health to address these gaps, developed through a collaboration between the University of Sydney and Yale University. Drawing on seventeen fields — including neuroscience, clinical psychology, law and policy, platform and algorithmic studies, and family and youth studies — the framework identifies four core research dimensions (causation, platforms, contexts, and interventions) and six outcome domains for evidence-based action.