How teens' own and others' social media posts relate to emotional well-being
Official title: Using mixed methods to evaluate self- and other-generated TDM content as predictors of socioemotional well-being in sexual and gender minority (SGM) and non-SGM adolescents
Funded at University of Wisconsin-Madison · NIH-11367899 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project follows 13–15-year-old teens, including sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) youth, to see how things they post and things they see on social media relate to their emotional health over time.
Quick facts
| Grant type | P01 program project |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Wisconsin-Madison NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Madison, United States) |
| Project start | September 12, 2022 |
| Project end | August 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $411,396 |
| NIH project number | 5P01HD109850-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11367899 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are teens aged 13–15 who use social media regularly and are willing to share their posts and complete surveys and interviews, including sexual and gender minority youth.
✕Less likely to help
Teens who do not use social media, are outside the 13–15 age range, or are unwilling to share their online activity are unlikely to benefit directly from participating.
What this research studies
If you join, researchers will follow you for two years and collect information about what you post and what you see on social media. The study plans to enroll about 400 teens and will use surveys, interviews, and a novel method that directly observes self-created social media content while also tracking content from others. Researchers will look at two-direction links — whether what you post changes your mood and whether what you see changes your mood — and how those effects differ for LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ teens. The goal is to find patterns that could help reduce harmful online experiences and strengthen positive ones.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could point to ways to reduce harmful online interactions and support teens' emotional health, especially for sexual and gender minority youth.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research has linked social media use to teen mental health with mixed results, and this project's direct observation plus two-year longitudinal approach is relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Selkie, Ellen Marie — University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Study coordinator: Selkie, Ellen Marie
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.