Report highlights impact of social media on girls

SECONDARY school-aged girls in Wales have much higher rates of self-reported problematic social media use than boys, research shows.

- ROD MINCHIN Press Association reporter

The differences were most pronounced in Year 9 and Year 10, with one in five girls reporting their own problematic use compared with one in 10 boys.

Public Health Wales and Cardiff University analysed data from the 2023 The School Health Research Network student health and wellbeing secondary school survey.

It asked young people aged between 11 and 16 a series of questions about their social media use and whether they had neglected other activities in favour of social media.

It found that 21% of girls in Year 10 and 20% of Year 9 reported the highest rate of problematic social media use, compared with 10% and 9% of boys respectively. The overall figure for Wales is 17% for girls and 9% for boys. As well as the difference between genders, there was also a gap between families in differing economic situations.