Positive Affect is Associated with Interactive Social Media Use: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Research examining associations between social media usage (SMU) and adolescent psychological wellbeing has relied on cross-sectional self-report data, limiting understanding of specific social media behaviours and within-person variability. To address these limitations, the present study combined an objective experimental task with Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to investigate associations between adolescents’ SMU styles, momentary affect, and trait depressive symptoms. 229 older adolescents (110 females; Mage = 22.60, 18-25 years old) completed the Social Networking Site Behaviour Task, which classifies SMU along a passive to interactive continuum, across three days (573 datapoints). Trait depressive symptoms were assessed on Day 1 using the Maryland Trait and State Depression Scale, while momentary affect was measured on each day using the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Linear mixed-effects models revealed between-person variability in SMU style. Positive affect was significantly associated with more interactive SMU (liking and commenting relative to scrolling), whereas negative affect and trait depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with SMU style. Our findings suggest that SMU styles reflect both stable individual differences and dynamic within-person variation associated with positive affective states. This demonstrates the value of combining objective behavioural measures with longitudinal EMA design to advance understanding SMU and psychological wellbeing.