Â鶹app
McNair Scholar, 2025
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Dr. Melinda Morrill
Research Title: Childhood Emotional Abuse as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Young Adults
Abstract:
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as childhood emotional abuse, are highly prevalent and associated with significant long-term negative impacts on mental health in young adults. In recent years, with the prevalence of internet-connected mobile devices, social media use in young adults has increased dramatically. Much social media use involves social comparison with peers, which has been shown to increase anxiety in young adults. Indeed, research has shown an explosion in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in young adults in the past decades. Although ACEs are also known to predispose young adults to anxiety and may make young adults particularly susceptible to social comparison, no research to our knowledge has examined ACEs, specifically childhood emotional abuse, as a moderator of the association between social media use and anxiety in young adults. It is important to understand the existing literature surrounding this question to develop future high-impact intervention studies specifically for the many young adults who have suffered from childhood emotional abuse and have anxiety due to social media use. This systematic scoping literature review will comprehensively map and assess the existing data using a six-step methodological framework: Stage 1) Identify the research question ("How does childhood emotional abuse moderate the association between social media use and GAD in young adults?"); Stage 2) Identify relevant studies (up to 500) using systematic search strategy from traditional and large language model programs; Stage 3) Select a subset of studies based on inclusion and exclusion criteria relevant to the research question; Stage 4) Extract and chart the data including general study information, methodology, measures, and results; Stage 5) Organize, synthesize, and report results; Stage 6) Consult and network with experts in the field to review findings and suggest considerations for future studies.
