Dr. Stephanie Meyers-Godleski               Dr. Ammina Kothari

Social media play an important role in young adults’ lives, who use various platforms for social connectedness and well-being support. This study explores social media use by teenagers and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic and their willingness to seek mental health assistance on social media and the effect on their well-being. Using online data collected through Qualtrics in March 2020 from teens ages 13 – 17 (n=125) and young adults ages 18 – 24 (n=125) living in the United States, we explored the relationship between social media use and adolescent and emerging adult well-being and attitudes towards mental health during a pandemic. Our results indicate that regular use of social media and willingness to seek emotional support could lead to positive and negative effects. Difficulties with self-disclosure was significantly associated with negative affect and not posting for emotional support, and tended to be associated with less positive affect and help seeking propensity for mental health problems.