Objectively Measured Social Media Duration in Relation to Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Suicide Ideation, and Suicide Attempt Among Young Adults

Objective: This study examines the relationship between objectively measured social media use and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal behaviors, addressing the limitations of prior research that relied on self-reported data. Method: Conducted across six universities in Shaanxi, China, the study tracked weekly social media usage using smartphone monitoring, with a sample size of 7,401 participants. Social media types were classified into social networking applications (SNA), text messaging and messaging applications (TMMA), online forums and community applications (OFCA), and short video applications (SVA). Logistic regression and cubic spline curves were used to estimate the relationships of the overall social media duration or its sub-types with the odds of NSSI and suicidal behaviors. Results: Each one-hour increase in social networking applications was significantly associated with increased odds of both NSSI (OR = 1.018; 95% CI: 1.007–1.028) and suicide ideation (OR = 1.016; 95% CI: 1.007–1.025). In addition, each one-hour increase in online forums and community applications was linked to increased odds of suicide ideation (OR = 1.063; 95% CI: 1.029–1.097), while text messaging and messaging applications was associated with higher odds of NSSI (OR = 1.010; 95% CI: 1.002–1.017). In contrast, prolonged duration in short videos applications was observed to be associated with decreased odds of NSSI (OR = 0.983; 95% CI: 0.975–0.991) and suicide ideation (OR = 0.988; 95% CI: 0.981–0.995). Conclusion: However, no statistically significant association was found between suicide attempt and the total time spent on social media, nor with any of its subtypes. Furthermore, the restricted cubic spline analysis showed linear associations of social networking applications and text messaging and messaging applications with the prevalence of NSSI, but U-shaped relationships of text messaging and messaging applications and short videos applications duration with suicide ideation was observed (P for non-linearity < 0.05).