Srinagar, India: Nearly 45 percent of school students in Kashmir show sub optimal mental wellbeing, with certain forms of social media and technology use associated with lower psychological health scores, according to a recent study.
The research examined the relationship between social media use and mental wellbeing among high school students in Kashmir and found that activities such as smartphone use, messaging, internet searching, and video gaming showed measurable associations with lower psychological wellbeing scores.
The findings come from a cross sectional study titled “Nexus Between Social Media Use and Mental Health Outcomes among High School Students in Kashmir, India,” published in the Ianna Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.
Researchers conducted a survey among 246 students from grades 7 to 12 across five schools in Kashmir, including three urban and two rural schools, to capture diverse student settings.
Participants had a mean age of 15.52 years, and 52 percent were male while 48 percent were female. Most students were between 15 and 17 years old, and about 65.9 percent were studying in grades 10 to 12.
The study collected data through a structured questionnaire using validated tools to measure both social media activity and psychological wellbeing. The survey assessed behaviours such as smartphone use, internet searching, messaging, media sharing, video gaming, and online friendships.
Researchers analysed the results using statistical methods including correlation analysis to examine how technology related behaviours were associated with mental wellbeing indicators.
The findings showed that 9.3 percent of students had poor psychological wellbeing and 35 percent had moderate wellbeing, meaning approximately 45 percent of students reported sub optimal mental wellbeing overall.
At the same time, the study found that overall social media engagement among students was relatively low, with only small proportions reporting moderate or high participation in activities such as online friendships (3.6 percent) and video gaming (2.8 percent).
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Despite relatively low overall usage levels, the study found that greater engagement in several digital activities was associated with slightly lower psychological wellbeing scores.
These activities included smartphone use, internet searching, messaging, and video gaming. Among these behaviours, video gaming showed the strongest association with lower wellbeing scores in the analysis.
For scientific interpretation, researchers reported negative correlations between these digital activities and psychological wellbeing. In simple terms, this means that as the level of engagement in certain digital activities increased, mental wellbeing scores tended to decrease.
However, the strength of these relationships was relatively small. Researchers noted that the correlations were weak but statistically significant, meaning the association was unlikely to have occurred by chance in the dataset.
The analysis reported weak but statistically significant negative correlations between psychological wellbeing and several digital activities, including smartphone use (r = −0.16), text messaging (r = −0.14), internet searching (r = −0.19), and video gaming (r = −0.25).
Importantly, the study does not establish that technology use directly causes poorer mental health. Instead, it shows that these factors are related or associated with each other in the data.
Researchers also identified technology related anxiety among some students.
More than 14 percent reported moderate to high anxiety when unable to send text messages, while over 17 percent experienced anxiety when they could not make phone calls. Students also reported anxiety when unable to access social networking platforms or email services.
The study identified gender and age related differences in technology use.
Male students reported higher levels of smartphone use, gaming, media sharing, and online friendships compared with female students. However, male participants also showed lower psychological wellbeing scores in the analysis.
Students in grades 10 to 12 reported significantly higher technology use scores than those in grades 7 to 9, including higher engagement in emailing, media sharing, gaming, and online friendships.
The analysis also showed that psychological wellbeing tended to decline with increasing age, with a statistically significant negative relationship between age and mental wellbeing scores.
The researchers noted that digital platforms play an important role in communication, learning, and information sharing among adolescents. However, excessive or poorly regulated digital activity may contribute to stress and reduced psychological wellbeing.
They suggested that schools, parents, and policymakers should promote responsible technology use and digital literacy among students.
Recommended measures include:
Digital literacy and responsible smartphone use programmes
School based mental health services and counselling support
Guidance for students on balanced screen time and healthy online behaviour
The authors also highlighted the need for longitudinal studies to better understand the long term relationship between digital technology use and adolescent mental health.
1. Hoque, Muhammad, Syed Manzoor Qadri, Anjum Afshan Qadri, Maqsood Ul Hassan Khan, David Adedia, Akram Uzzaman, Felix Kwasi Nyande, et al. 2026. “Nexus Between Social Media Use and Mental Health Outcomes among High School Students in Kashmir, India.” Ianna Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17708839.
(Rh/MSM)
