Social media use of adolescents as a component of the comprehensive mental health assessment

Abstract

The mental health assessment of an adolescent involves exploring the interactions with their family, teachers, peers and important others. The modern-day adolescent socially communicates through the social media frequently. Therefore, the mental health assessment needs to be modified to include information about their social media use. The western world has established specialized mental health services targeting unique patient populations. However, many settings in the developing world lack well-distributed subspecialist services including child and adolescent mental health expertise. Due to the unavailability of subspecialists, mental health assessments of adolescents would be done by general specialists and primary-care physicians. This article provides simple instructions on how to assess the online media use of adolescents that could have a major impact on their mental health.