A longitudinal study of objective dating app usage and its relation to mental health in adolescents.

Abstract

The use of dating apps among adolescents is a growing public concern. Past research, which almost exclusively relies on self-reported dating app usage, highlights an increased risk of victimization, but also opportunities to develop personal and social identity, particularly for minoritized youth. Thus, the present study used a mobile sensing app that passively tracked dating app usage over 6 months in 149 adolescents with a wide range of internalizing disorder severity. Thirty-five (23.5%) adolescents used dating apps across the 6 months (indexed by any keyboard input across dating apps), averaging 1.74 (SD = 1.12, range = 1-6) apps per person. At baseline, users (vs. nonusers) were older, more pubertally mature, and more likely to identify as sexual and gender minorities. Controlling for differences in demographic characteristics using propensity score matching, users and nonusers were largely comparable in clinical characteristics, with only a few differences evident: (a) greater self-reported frequency of risky behaviors at baseline and (b) greater number of weeks meeting major depressive disorder criteria across the follow-up period. Exploratory, within-person analyses in a subset of 18 users showed that a greater number of messages sent in dating apps was associated with a greater likelihood of having (subthreshold) depression symptoms in the concurrent week. Importantly, these findings are cross-sectional, and therefore the causal direction of effects remains unclear. Overall, passive monitoring of dating behaviors affords a unique lens on socioemotional development in youth, revealing nuanced relations between dating app usage and mental health among adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).