Social science: Earlier social media use may lead to lower standardised test scores (Nature Human Behaviour)
4 August 2026
Students who open a personal social media account earlier in adolescence appear to perform worse in later standardised tests, according to a study in Nature Human Behaviour based on 5,227 Italian students. The authors speculate that these differences may be attributable to excessive social media engagement and disruptions to pupils’ attention.
Social media use is widespread among teenagers, and most young people create their first account at the age of 10 or 11 years. Although previous research has proposed that social media may influence adolescents’ wellbeing, its effects on learning outcomes have been unclear.
Marco Gui and colleagues analysed survey data on social media habits — which includes use of Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — collected between 2023 and 2024, along with standardised test records in Italian, English, and mathematics for students from 28 northern Italian schools. Compared with students who opened a social media account in grade 9 (aged 14 to 15 years) or later, those who opened an account in grade 6 (aged 11 to 12 years) scored around 0.22 standard deviations lower in Italian and 0.18 standard deviations lower in mathematics by grade 8 (13 to 14 years). By grade 10 (15 to 16 years), the test score gap remained at 0.22 standard deviations in Italian, and widened to 0.27 standard deviations in mathematics. The authors note that, in this study, 0.2 standard deviations is equivalent to 6 months’ worth of schooling.
Test score differences at grade 10 were generally smaller for students who opened an account in grade 7 (12 to 13 years) — who scored 0.17 and 0.22 standard deviations lower in Italian and mathematics, respectively — or grade 8 — who scored 0.11 standard deviations lower in both Italian and mathematics. The study found no evidence of differences in English scores. Further analysis indicated that pupils who reported checking their phones more frequently were more likely to have opened a social media account earlier and tended to have lower Italian and mathematics scores by grade 10. They were also less likely to have had parental supervision of their social media use.
The authors conclude that, although the study is observational, the analysis provides robust evidence of a negative effect of early social media use on Italian and mathematics scores in this study population. However, they note that given the debate around social media use in education, these findings should be interpreted cautiously.
- Article
- Open access
- Published: 03 August 2026
Gui, M., Respi, C., Abbiati, G. et al. Longitudinal effect of early social media use on standardized learning outcomes during school career. Nat Hum Behav (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-026-02522-4
Research Briefing: Negative influence of early social media use on school outcomes
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02523-3
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