Early social media use linked to poorer school results, study finds

Early teenagers who created personal social media accounts performed worse in later standardised assessments, according to a study by Italian researchers published by ERR.

The study examined 5,227 schoolchildren from 28 schools in northern Italy. Researchers compared survey data on the students’ social media habits, collected in 2023 and 2024, with their results in Italian, English and mathematics assessments.

Students who created a social media account in sixth grade, at the age of 11 or 12, scored about 0.22 standard deviations lower in Italian and 0.18 standard deviations lower in mathematics by eighth grade than those who joined social media in ninth grade, at the age of 14 or older.

By 10th grade, the difference in Italian remained at 0.22 standard deviations, while the gap in mathematics had widened to 0.27 standard deviations. The researchers said that, in the context of the study, 0.2 standard deviations was equivalent to about half a school year.

The differences were generally smaller among students who created accounts in seventh or eighth grade. Those who started in seventh grade scored 0.17 standard deviations lower in Italian and 0.22 standard deviations lower in mathematics by 10th grade. Among those who started in eighth grade, results in both subjects were 0.11 standard deviations lower. No differences were found in English.

Further analysis showed that students who checked their phones more frequently were more likely to have created social media accounts at a younger age. They also generally had lower 10th-grade results in Italian and mathematics, and their social media use was often not monitored by their parents.

The researchers said the observational study provided convincing evidence that starting social media use early was associated with poorer Italian and mathematics results in the group examined. However, they stressed that the findings should be treated with caution because social media’s role in education remains contested.

The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.