Short-term effects of adolescent social media experiences on suicidal ideation: examining the roles of identity exploration and functioning

The National Institute of Mental Health awarded Rutgers, The State University $100,228 on November 1, 2026, under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to examine the short-term effects of adolescent social media experiences on suicidal ideation, with particular focus on the roles of identity exploration and functioning.

The award supports research investigating how identity exploration during social media use may affect suicide risk in adolescents. The project addresses a gap in longitudinal research on dynamic, developmentally salient processes underlying suicidal thoughts during adolescence. Social media's unique features—including public content sharing and quantifiable social feedback—may amplify the effects of identity exploration experiences on psychopathology relative to offline identity exploration. The study will examine proximal relationships between both positive and negative social media identity exploration experiences and suicidal ideation, treating identity functioning as a transdiagnostic construct linked to suicide risk.

Performance occurs in Piscataway, New Jersey. The period of performance runs from November 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028.

Abstract

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents, and the developmental period of adolescence often marks the first onset of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Suicidal thoughts fluctuate dynamically over brief periods of time (e.g., hour-to-hour, day-to-day), creating critical proximal windows to better understand suicide risk. Prominent theoretical models and empirical research on suicide have largely focused on adult samples and predicting suicide risk over the course of months, years, or lifetimes. However, limited research has examined dynamic, developmentally salient processes that underlie the occurrence of suicidal thoughts during adolescence. One such developmentally salient process is identity development, in particular, identity exploration. Identity exploration has been demonstrated to fluctuate daily and predict increases in negative mood. Identity exploration has traditionally been conceptualized as an offline process; however, social media use is nearly ubiquitous among adolescents, perhaps changing the medium through which identity exploration occurs. The unique features of social media, including the publicness of content and quantifiability of social feedback, may amplify the effects of social media identity exploration experiences on psychopathology in comparison to offline identity exploration. Although previous research has identified that negative social media identity exploration experiences (e.g., engaging with self-injury related content for the purpose of identity exploration) are associated with suicidal ideation cross-sectionally, there is a dearth of research examining proximal relationships between positive and negative social media identity exploration experiences and suicidal thoughts. Identity functioning is a transdiagnostic construct longitudinally linked to suicide risk and proximally associated with other forms of self-injury. Self-concept clarity is a dimension of identity functioning that develops during adolescence and may be particularly implicated in suicidal thoughts. Understanding the short-term associations between self-concept clarity and suicidal thoughts can provide another developmentally salient target for suicide prevention. Furthermore, examining the short-term, bidirectional feedback between self- concept clarity and social media identity exploration experiences and this feedback loop's effect on suicidal thoughts can provide critical insight into how social media effects adolescent development and suicide risk in real time. The current study will use intensive longitudinal monitoring to understand the relationship between social media identity exploration experiences, self-concept clarity, and suicidal thoughts in a community sample of 70 adolescents ages 14-16 recruited from social media platforms and the community. Participants will respond to questions 4X/day for 28 days. The goal of this research is to understand the relationship between these developmentally salient processes and suicidal ideation as they unfold in real-time and provide critical targets for intervention to support adaptive adolescent development and prevent suicide.