Discussion Paper Series Social Media Use and Children’s Wellbeing

confidence in our IV results, except possibly for the friends outcome so we focus largely on the IV
results here.
In order to explore the social comparisons theory outlined in Section 2, in Panel A we explore
the effects of time spent on chatting on social media for children with high (above mean) vs. low
(below or equal to mean) self-esteem defined using a psychological measure called the Rosenberg
self-esteem scale. There are more adverse effects of social network use for those with lower selfesteem.
For those with high self-esteem, more time on social media decreases satisfaction only with
friends and school attended; whereas for those with low self-esteem there are adverse effects on all
aspects of life, except friends. These results provide some support for the social comparisons theory
as those with lower self-esteem are more prone to make negative social comparisons (Gibbons and
Buunk, 1999).
Panel B explores the finite resources theory by classifying children according to how many
other activities they are engaged in. We split the sample according to high (above mean) vs. low
(below or equal to mean) participation in other activities, such as going to the cinema, watching sport,
or ‘hanging out’ with friends. There are more adverse effects for those with higher involvement in
other activities, and at first this may appear contrary to the theoretical predictions, which suggest that
time spent on social media encroaches on other activities known to be beneficial for wellbeing.
However, looking at the results across the different domains we see that, for example, if children are
engaged in lots of other activities, increased netchat decreases their satisfaction with their school
work; this could be a result of time pressures. While our instruments may be in doubt for the friends
outcome, the IV results suggest that for those who have high engagement in other activities, social
media use decreases satisfaction with friends, whereas the opposite is true for those with low
engagement with other activities. This asymmetric effect may suggest that the latter group is relying
more on online friends, and the former group is socialising more with ‘real’ friends via their other
activities, and that increased time on social networks detracts from this. Finally, Panel C explores
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