RECRUITING

Teen Brain Online II: Understanding How Social Media Affects the Teen Brain

Study Overview

This clinical trial focuses on testing the efficacy of different digital interventions to promote re-engagement in cancer-related long-term follow-up care for adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of childhood cancer.

Description

There has been much interest in the potential role of social media (SM) use in driving a current mental health crisis among teens, with a dire need for evidence that goes beyond self-report. One important avenue is to understand the role of the brain in driving the effects of SM use on emotional health and vice versa. However, there is almost no research addressing these questions, largely due to a lack of tasks that can probe the neural correlates of modern SM use. The goal of this clinical trial is to develop and validate a new developmentally-appropriate and ecologically-valid functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and eyetracking task, the TeenBrainOnline (TBO) Task, that is more realistic and similar to modern SM platforms. Participants will be 50 teens (ages 13-17) with depressive symptoms who will complete the final version of TBO task during fMRI with eye-tracking, an older Chatroom Interact (CHAT-I) Task, daily surveys of SM use, and measures of depressive symptoms. Our goal is to show that the task works by: * Demonstrating that it activates expected regions of the brain and visual attention biases toward feedback cues. * Showing that brain and eyetracking (visual attention) activity on the task explain variability in depressive symptoms at baseline and three months later, and work better than similar indices from an older task. * Showing that brain and eyetracking (visual attention) activity on the task are associated with real-world measures of social media use collected during daily surveys. Specifically, The investigators expect that teens whose brain and eyetracking activity suggests they are more sensitive to feedback on SM will report a social evaluation orientation toward social media use in daily life, such as engaging a lot in social comparison, worrying about missing out, and caring about getting a lot of likes and comments. Participants will be asked to: * complete a 10-15 minute screening call to determine eligibility for the study * complete one 90 minute virtual study visit to complete questionnaires and prepare for the MRI visit (visit 1) * submit 24 photos to our study specific social media site * complete an (in person) MRI scan visit (\~4 hours), which consists of 2 tasks where they will interact with peers (visit 2) * complete \~5 minute smartphone surveys 3 times a day for 16 days, asking about their daily experiences online and emotional reactions. * complete 2 online questionnaires asynchronously 3 months after their scan date

Official Title

Development of a New Social Media fMRI Task to Better Investigate Bidirectional Links Between Social Media Use and Emotional Health in Youth

Quick Facts

Study Start:2025-03-21
Study Completion:2026-08-30
Study Type:Not specified
Phase:Not Applicable
Enrollment:Not specified
Status:RECRUITING

Study ID

NCT06817993

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Ages Eligible for Study:13 Years to 17 Years
Sexes Eligible for Study:ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:No
Standard Ages:CHILD
Inclusion CriteriaExclusion Criteria
  1. * Between ages 13-17
  2. * Depression screening scores on the MFQ-C in the mild (MFQ = 12-25; N = 20) or moderate-to-severe range (MFQ ≥25; N=30)
  3. * Possess their own smartphone to complete web-based ecological momentary assessments (EMA) using WebDataExpress.
  4. * use social media apps (e.g. Instagram, twitter, reddit, discord, YouTube, etc.) at least 3 times a week, on average, per teen report
  1. * Presence of a serious neurological or medical condition, by parent report
  2. * Unable to read or speak English or cognitive impairment preventing ability to complete assessments.
  3. * Hearing impairment preventing ability to hear and understand instructions conveyed via headphones in the MRI scanner
  4. * Possible pregnancy, as determined by participant report
  5. * Presence of probable substance use disorder, as determined by participant report
  6. * Presence of MRI contraindications (e.g., dental braces, history of metallic foreign objects in body such as aneurysm clips or other devices or questionable history of metallic fragments, claustrophobia, or a weight of above 300 lbs)
  7. * Taking medications that affect the central nervous system other than antidepressants (stable dose allowed due to high rates of use among teens with depressive symptoms) or stimulants if required 36 hours before the scan.
  8. * Completion of Chatroom Interact Task or TBO Task in prior studies
  9. * Screening positive on the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire, or screening positive on the Youth Inventory-4/ for a potential psychotic disorder or substance use disorder.

Contacts and Locations

Study Contact

Jennifer S Silk, Ph.D
CONTACT
412-624-4428
jss4@pitt.edu
Sarah E Nelson, B.S.
CONTACT
443-933-0785
SEN102@pitt.edu

Principal Investigator

Jennifer S Silk, Ph.D
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
University of Pittsburgh
Helmet T Karim, Ph.D.
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
University of Pittsburgh

Study Locations (Sites)

University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213
United States

Collaborators and Investigators

Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh

  • Jennifer S Silk, Ph.D, PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR, University of Pittsburgh
  • Helmet T Karim, Ph.D., PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR, University of Pittsburgh

Study Record Dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

Study Start Date2025-03-21
Study Completion Date2026-08-30

Study Record Updates

Study Start Date2025-03-21
Study Completion Date2026-08-30

Terms related to this study

Keywords Provided by Researchers

  • Depression
  • Adolescent
  • Teen
  • Social Media
  • Social Acceptance
  • Social Rejection
  • fMRI
  • Neuroimaging

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

  • Depression