Social media use, online racism, and mental health among Black Emerging Adults in the United States

Abstract

Social media use is a key risk factor for mental health symptomatology among emerging adults. Black emerging adults use social media frequently, where they are exposed to online racism, which may contribute to worse mental health. The goal of the current study was to examine the frequency of exposure to online racism as a mediator in the association between the frequency of social media use and depression and anxiety symptoms. Using a non-probability sample of 1005 monoracial Black emerging adults (Mage = 24.07, 50.6% women) from a larger investigation, participants completed an online survey, in which they reported their social media use, exposure to online racism, and mental health symptoms using established measures. Findings support mediation of associations for some social media platforms. More frequent Twitter (standardized indirect effect (SIE):.04, p = .027), Reddit (SIE:.10, p < .001), and TikTok (SIE:.05-.06, p = .005) use were associated with more frequent exposure to online racism, and more frequent exposure to online racism was associated with increased odds of depression and anxiety. Mediation was not supported for YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. Clinicians should consider stress from online racism as a factor for clients with high use of certain social media platforms. Future research can explore whether platform features like content warnings, hate speech moderation, and bias response teams could also help reduce exposure.