ReviewAIMS public health2025
Association between problematic TikTok use and mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in AIMS public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Negative Mental Health Consequences of Social Media Use in South Africa: The Role of Smartphone Addiction.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Association Between Problematic TikTok Use and Procrastination, Loneliness, and Self-Esteem: A Moderation Analysis by Sex and Generation.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Association Between TikTok Use and Anxiety, Depression, and Sleepiness Among Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study in Greece.Pediatric reports · 2025Article
- A link between problematic social media use and mental health in Greece: Sex and generation differences.AIMS public health · 2025Article
- Exploring digital interaction and positive youth development in a sample of Spanish undergraduates.AIMS public health · 2025Article
- Linking Smart-Phone Addiction to Self-Concept Clarity Among Chinese College Students: The Chain Mediation Roles of Social Anxiety and Social Withdrawal.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: TikTok is a significant part of social media usage, since 25.6% of the total global population has a TikTok account, and, thus, scholars should pay attention to its association with users' mental health. Objective: To synthesize and evaluate the association between problematic TikTok use and mental health. Methods: We applied the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines in our review. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42024582054). We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, ProQuest, and CINAHL until September 02, 2024. Results: We identified 16 studies with 15,821 individuals. All studies were cross-sectional and were conducted after 2019. Quality was moderate in 10 studies, good in three studies, and poor in three studies. Our random effects models showed a positive association between TikTok use and depression ( Conclusion: Our findings suggest that problematic TikTok use has a negative association with several mental health issues. Given the high levels of TikTok use, especially among young adults, our findings are essential to further enhance our understanding of the association between TikTok use and mental health. Finally, there is a need for further studies of better quality to assess the association between problematic TikTok use and mental health in a more valid way.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.