ScholarSphere

Digital Media Use Preference Indirectly Relates to Adolescent Social Anxiety Symptoms Through Delta-Beta Coupling

Adolescence is a period of profound biological and social-emotional development during which social anxiety symptoms commonly emerge. Over the past several decades, the social world of teens has been transformed by pervasive digital media use (e.g., social media, messaging apps), highlighting the urgent need to examine links between digital media use and mental health. Prior work suggests that a preference to use digital media to communicate emotions, rather than face-to-face contexts, is associated with emotion regulation vulnerabilities. Difficulties with emotion regulation are a hallmark of elevated anxiety, and the maturation of frontal-subcortical circuitry underlying emotion regulation may make adolescents especially vulnerable to the possible detrimental effects of digital media use. The current study leveraged an emerging neurophysiological correlate of emotion regulation, delta-beta coupling, which captures cortical-subcortical coherence during resting state. We test links among digital media use preferences, delta-beta coupling, and anxiety symptoms with a sample of 80 adolescents (47 females; 33 males) ages 12–15 years (M = 13.9, SD = 0.6) (80% White, 2% Black/African American, 16% more than one race, 2% Hispanic/Latine). Youth had their EEG recorded during 6 min of resting-state baseline from which delta-beta coupling was generated. Youth self-reported their social anxiety symptoms and preferences for digital media use vs face-to-face modalities. Greater digital media use preferences for both positive and negative social-emotional communication were associated with elevated social anxiety symptoms indirectly through high delta-beta coupling. This suggests that neural regulatory imbalance may be a pathway through which adolescents’ habitual preferences for digital media use over face-to-face communication relate to elevated social anxiety.

Files

Metadata

Work Title Digital Media Use Preference Indirectly Relates to Adolescent Social Anxiety Symptoms Through Delta-Beta Coupling
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Sarah Myruski
  2. Bridget Cahill
  3. Kristin A. Buss
Keyword
  1. Social Anxiety
  2. Digital Media
  3. Delta Beta Coupling
  4. Adolescence
  5. Emotion Regulation
  6. Social Emotional
License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives)
Work Type Article
Acknowledgments
  1. Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH114974; PI Buss). Dr. Buss’ Psychology Professorship is supported by an endowment through the Tracy Winfree and Ted H. McCourtney Professorship in Children, Work, and Families and by the Social Science Research Institute of The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Myruski’s research is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (L40MH134330).
Publisher
  1. Affective Science
Publication Date June 25, 2024
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-024-00245-1
Deposited March 12, 2025

Versions

Analytics

Collections

This resource is currently not in any collection.

Work History

Version 1
published

  • Created

    March 12, 2025 11:03 by sfm6016

  • Updated

    March 12, 2025 11:03 by [unknown user]

  • Added Creator Sarah Myruski

    March 12, 2025 11:04 by sfm6016

  • Added Creator Bridget Cahill

    March 12, 2025 11:04 by sfm6016

  • Added Creator Kristin A. Buss

    March 12, 2025 11:04 by sfm6016

  • Updated Work Title, Keyword, Publisher, and 3 more Show Changes

    March 12, 2025 11:04 by sfm6016

    Work Title
    • Digital media use preference indirectly relates to adolescent social anxiety symptoms through delta-beta coupling
    • Digital Media Use Preference Indirectly Relates to Adolescent Social Anxiety Symptoms Through Delta-Beta Coupling
    Keyword
    • Face To Face Communication, Social Anxiety, Digital Media, Delta Beta Coupling, Adolescence, Social Anxiety Symptoms, Digital Media Use, Emotion Regulation, Resting State, Mental Health, Social Emotional Development, Difficulties In Emotion Regulation, Black African, Neuroanatomical Correlates, Male Age, Latine, Detrimental Effects, Vulnerability, Circuitry, African American, Hispanic, Anxiety Symptoms, Social World, Emotional Communication, Messaging Apps, Social Emotional
    Publisher
    • Affective Science
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-024-00245-1
    Description
    • Adolescence is a period of profound biological and social-emotional development during which social anxiety symptoms commonly emerge. Over the past several decades, the social world of teens has been transformed by pervasive digital media use (e.g., social media, messaging apps), highlighting the urgent need to examine links between digital media use and mental health. Prior work suggests that a preference to use digital media to communicate emotions, rather than face-to-face contexts, is associated with emotion regulation vulnerabilities. Difficulties with emotion regulation are a hallmark of elevated anxiety, and the maturation of frontal-subcortical circuitry underlying emotion regulation may make adolescents especially vulnerable to the possible detrimental effects of digital media use. The current study leveraged an emerging neurophysiological correlate of emotion regulation, delta-beta coupling, which captures cortical-subcortical coherence during resting state. We test links among digital media use preferences, delta-beta coupling, and anxiety symptoms with a sample of 80 adolescents (47 females; 33 males) ages 12–15 years (M = 13.9, SD = 0.6) (80% White, 2% Black/African American, 16% more than one race, 2% Hispanic/Latine). Youth had their EEG recorded during 6 min of resting-state baseline from which delta-beta coupling was generated. Youth self-reported their social anxiety symptoms and preferences for digital media use vs face-to-face modalities. Greater digital media use preferences for both positive and negative social-emotional communication were associated with elevated social anxiety symptoms indirectly through high delta-beta coupling. This suggests that neural regulatory imbalance may be a pathway through which adolescents’ habitual preferences for digital media use over face-to-face communication relate to elevated social anxiety.
    Publication Date
    • 2024-12-01
  • Updated

    March 12, 2025 11:04 by sfm6016

  • Updated Keyword Show Changes

    March 12, 2025 11:05 by sfm6016

    Keyword
    • Face To Face Communication, Social Anxiety, Digital Media, Delta Beta Coupling, Adolescence, Social Anxiety Symptoms, Digital Media Use, Emotion Regulation, Resting State, Mental Health, Social Emotional Development, Difficulties In Emotion Regulation, Black African, Neuroanatomical Correlates, Male Age, Latine, Detrimental Effects, Vulnerability, Circuitry, African American, Hispanic, Anxiety Symptoms, Social World, Emotional Communication, Messaging Apps, Social Emotional
    • Social Anxiety, Digital Media, Delta Beta Coupling, Adolescence, Emotion Regulation, Social Emotional
  • Updated Creator Sarah Myruski

    March 12, 2025 11:05 by sfm6016

  • Updated Creator Bridget Cahill

    March 12, 2025 11:05 by sfm6016

  • Updated Creator Kristin A. Buss

    March 12, 2025 11:05 by sfm6016

  • Added Myruski Cahill Buss 2024_AFFS_accepted version - flattened.pdf

    March 12, 2025 11:05 by sfm6016

  • Updated Acknowledgments, License Show Changes

    March 12, 2025 11:11 by sfm6016

    Acknowledgments
    • Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH114974; PI Buss). Dr. Buss’ Psychology Professorship is supported by an endowment through the Tracy Winfree and Ted H. McCourtney Professorship in Children, Work, and Families and by the Social Science Research Institute of The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Myruski’s research is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (L40MH134330).
    License
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
  • Updated

    March 12, 2025 11:11 by sfm6016

  • Updated

    March 12, 2025 11:11 by sfm6016

  • Updated Publication Date Show Changes

    March 19, 2025 12:32 by jts5573

    Publication Date
    • 2024-12-01
    • 2024-06-25
  • Added AccessibleCopy_Digital_Media_Use_Preference_Indirectly_Relates_to_Adolescent_Social_Anxiety.pdf

    April 21, 2025 09:44 by jts5573

  • Published

    April 21, 2025 09:45 by jts5573