Though social media can be a helpful tool for teenagers to learn and connect with friends, experts have long warned that too much Snapchatting or Instagramming can come with downsides.
虽然社交媒体对于青少年学习、交 友有帮助，但们长期以来一直警告说，过多使用Snapchatting 或Instagram可能带来不利影响。

 There appears to be a connection between social media use and depressive symptoms in 14-year-olds, and that connection may be much stronger for girls than boys, according to a study published in the journal EClinicalMedicine on Thursday.
根据EClinicalMedicine期刊周四发表的一项研究显示，14岁青少年沉迷社交媒体与抑郁症状的产生存在某种联系，而这种联系在女孩中更明显。

"There's an alarming difference," said Yvonne Kelly, first author of the study and a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London in the United Kingdom.
“这是一个警钟。”个研究此领域的的发表者、英国伦敦大学学院的流行病学和公共卫生教授Yvonne Kelly说。

Among teens who use social media the most -- more than five hours a day -- the study showed a 50% increase in depressive symptoms among girls versus 35% among boys, when their symptoms were compared with those who use social media for only one to three hours daily.
该研究显示，与只使用社交媒体1~3小时/天的青少年相比，每天超过5小时沉迷在社交媒体中的青少年，女孩的抑郁症状增加50％，而男孩则为35％。

"We were quite surprised when we saw the figures and we saw those raw percentages: the fact that the magnitude of association was so much larger for girls than for boys," Kelly said.
“当我们看到这些数据和百分比时，感到非常惊讶：女孩的症状要比男孩大得多，”凯利说。

Yet the study, conducted in the UK, showed only an association between social media use and symptoms of depression, which can include feelings of unhappiness, restlessness or loneliness. The findings cannot prove that frequent social media use caused depressive symptoms, or vice versa.
然而，这项在英国进行的研究显示，社交媒体的使用与抑郁症之间只存在关联，其中包括不快乐、烦躁不安或孤独感。调查结果无法证明频繁使用社交媒体会导致抑郁症状，或者抑郁症患者更愿意沉迷与社交媒体中。

The study also described other factors, such as lack of sleep and cyberbullying, that could help explain this association.
该研究还提到了其他导致抑郁症的因素，如睡眠不足和网络欺凌，这些因素可以帮助解释导致抑郁的结果。




Explanations for the gender gap
关于性别差异的解释


For the study, researchers analyzed data on 10,904 14-year-olds who were born between 2000 and 2002 in the United Kingdom. The data, which came from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, included information from questionnaires on the teens' depressive symptoms and social media use.
在这项研究中，研究人员分析了英国2000年至2002年间出生的10,904名14岁青少年的数据。这些数据来自英国千禧年研究，其中包括青少年抑郁症状和社交媒体使用问卷的调查信息。

Depressive symptoms were recorded as scores, and the researchers looked at which teens had high or low scores. They found that on average, girls had higher depressive symptom scores compared with boys.
研究人员采用打分制去评估抑郁症状，看哪些青少年得分高、哪些得分低。他们发现，与男孩相比，女孩平均抑郁症状的分数较高。

The researchers also found that girls reported more social media use than boys; 43.1% of girls said they used social media for three or more hours per day, versus 21.9% of boys.
研究人员还发现女孩使用社交媒体的比例比男孩高; 43.1％的女孩表示她们每天使用社交媒体3小时或更长时间，而男孩则为21.9％。


When examining differences between girls and boys who spend the same amount of time on social media, the researchers found the stronger association between social media use and depressive symptoms for girls.
在对比社交媒体使用时间相同的女孩和男孩之间的差异时，研究人员发现女孩的抑郁症状与社交媒体使用存在更强的联系。

The data showed that for teens using social media for three to five hours, 26% of girls and 21% of boys had depressive symptom scores higher than those who used social media for only about one to three hours a day.
数据显示，对于使用社交媒体三至五小时的青少年，26％的女孩和21％的男孩的抑郁症状得分高于那些每天只使用一到三个小时的人。

"For both girls and boys, the more social media they use, the more likely they are to have mental health problems, but not that many studies have been able to look for the explanations why," Kelly said.
“对于女孩和男孩来说，使用社交媒体越久，就越有可能产生心理健康问题，但在许多研究中并没有找到具体的原因。”凯利说。

"We looked at four potential explanations simultaneously, and this is the first paper to do that. We looked at sleeping habits; experiences online, so cyberbullying; how they thought about their bodies, or their body image, and whether they were happy with how they looked; and their self-esteem," she said. "All of those four things -- the sleep, the cyberharassment, the body image or happiness with appearance, and the self-esteem -- they are all linked with the risk of having depression."
“我们同时研究了四个潜在的影响因素，这是篇解释这一研究结果的论文。我们研究了睡眠习惯、上网体验（即网络欺凌）、他们如何看待自己的身体或外貌（是否满意）、自尊心。“她说，“这四个因素 - 睡眠，网络评价，身体形象或对外貌的满意度，以及自尊 - 都与患抑郁症的风险有关。”

In other words, those experiences were tied to frequent social media use, which means they could play a role in the depressive symptoms. Among them, sleep and cyberbullying appeared to be the most important, Kelly said.
换句话说，这些因素与频繁使用社交媒体有关，这意味着它们可以引起抑郁症。凯利说，其中睡眠和网络欺凌似乎是重要的。

As for the big gender difference in the data, the study did not explore any explanations, but Kelly had some ideas.
至于数据中的性别差异，该研究并没得出任何结论，但凯利有一些想法。

"My best bet would be the types of things that girls and boys do online," Kelly said.
“我猜这与女孩和男孩在网上做的事情的差别有关。”凯利说。

"In the UK, girls tend to more likely use things like Snapchat or Instagram, which is more based around physical appearance, taking photographs and commenting on those photographs," she said. "I think it has to do with the nature of use."
“在英国，女孩更倾向于使用像Snapchat或Instagram这样的社交媒体，这种东西更多地基于外表、拍照和照片评论，”她说，“我认为这与使用不同的社交媒体有关。”

The study had some limitations, including that the findings show only a correlation between depressive symptoms and social media use, not a causal relationship.
该研究存在一些局限性，即研究结果仅显示抑郁症与社交媒体使用有关联性，而非因果关系。

More research is needed to determine whether teens who have depressive symptoms are more likely to use social media, versus frequent social media use leading to depressive symptoms.
需要更多的研究来确定抑郁症青少年是否更有可能使用社交媒体，而频繁的社交媒体使用会导致抑郁症状。

Also, the data in the study was self-reported from questionnaires, which runs the risk of a 14-year-old not accurately remembering or revealing the amount of time spent playing a game or watching a video on social media.
此外，研究中的数据是通过自我报告的形式搜集而来，14岁的青少年会有无法准确提供在社交媒体上玩游戏或观看视频所花费的时间的情况。

'When it comes to depression, girls are more vulnerable'
“女孩更容易抑郁。”

The new study serves as "a good addition to the literature on this important topic," said Dr. Anne Glowinski, professor of child psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the research.
圣路易斯华盛顿大学儿童精神病学教授Anne Glowinski博士表示，这项新研究是“对这一重要课题一个很好的补充” ，他没有参与这项研究。

"I would say that girls are, and have been for as long as measured, at a greater risk of depression than boys after puberty and that depression is a disorder which is caused by genetic and environmental, including social, determinants and their interaction," Glowinski said.
“根据长期以来的数据显示，我会说女孩在青春期后患上抑郁症的风险要比男孩高，抑郁症是一种通过遗传和环境引起的疾病，包括社会、特定因素及其相互作用。” Glowinski说。


"If being online more is one of those social factors that makes the emergence of depression more likely -- as opposed to being online more representing already a symptom on the way to depression -- than it does not surprise me that there are gender differences and that girls are more vulnerable," she said. "When it comes to depression, girls are more vulnerable."
“如果长时间上网是引起抑郁症的社会因素之一，而不是抑郁症的一种症状，那么存在性别差异，我并不觉得很意外，“她说，“因为女孩跟来就更容易抑郁。”


Dr. Gary Maslow, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Duke Health and assistant professor of pediatrics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said the study finding of four factors related to social media use and depressive symptoms was interesting.
杜克健康的儿童和青少年精神病学家、北卡罗来纳州达勒姆杜克大学儿科助理教授加里马斯洛博士说，这项研究发现了社交媒体使用和抑郁症有关联的4个因素，很有趣。

"For me, the sleep one is probably the most actionable in some ways," said Maslow, who was not involved in the research.
“对我来说，睡眠因素可能在某些方面影响大，”马斯洛说，他并没有参与这项研究。

Among teens, "if their sleep is disturbed, and that's because they're using social media a lot, could you cut back on their social media and improve their sleep? That seems like a very tangible finding," he said.
在青少年中，“如果他们的睡眠受到影响，那是因为他们经常使用社交媒体，你能减少他们的社交媒体使用时间并改善他们的睡眠吗？这似乎是一个非常现实的发现。”他说。

He added that he often points his patients' families to the American Academy of Pediatrics for tips on how to establish healthy social media habits in the home.
他补充说道，他常常患者的家属去美国儿科学会，学习如何在家中建立健康的社交媒体使用习惯。

One tip is to set up a charging station in the home, he said, so cell phones are not charged in the bedroom, which can lead to distractions and sleep interruptions.
他说，其中一个建议就是在家中设置一个充电的地方，这样大家就不会在卧室里充电，也就不会导致分心，影响睡眠。

"Get an alarm clock, so the kid doesn't use their phone as an alarm, and really limit that nighttime usage, because we know sleep affects mood and everything else," Maslow said.
“个闹钟，这样孩子们就不会用手机设置闹铃，并限制夜间使用手机的时间，因为我们知道睡眠质量的好坏会影响我们的情绪和一切。”马斯洛说。

"It's a balance, because there are benefits to engagement with media. There are so many ways in which social media is important and has positive features, but there's also ways in which social media can replace social support and connection from people you are living with in person," he said. "So it's finding that sweet spot."
“这是一种平衡，因为接触媒体并不是坏事。社交媒体在很多方面起着重要作用，也具备许多功能，但它同样也可以取代生活中朋友及家人给予的社会支持和联系，“他说，“这样平衡了之后，鱼和熊掌都可兼得。”