Social Media a Double-Edged Sword for Young Athletes, New Study Finds
Social media has become an inescapable part of young people’s lives, and its effects on competitive athletes are far from straightforward. A new cross-sectional study published in Frontiers in Psychology sought to untangle the relationship between digital platforms and the mental health of athletes aged 12 to 24, a group that is still navigating the biological and psychosocial transitions of adolescence while also facing the unique demands of sport. The research team, led by Camille Tooth from the University of Liège in Belgium, recruited 912 athletes through the ReFORM network and Olympism365 between February and May 2025. The sample included 385 females, 522 males, two non-binary participants, and three who preferred not to say, with a mean age of 16.5 years. Participants came mainly from Luxembourg, France, and Belgium, with smaller numbers from Switzerland, Canada, and other countries. Around 61% competed in team sports and 39% in individual sports, with rugby the most represented discipline, followed by athletics, soccer, and basketball. Competitive levels ranged from amateur to world-class, and the anonymous questionnaire covered six domains: demographics and sport background, social media habits, perceived general health impact, sport-specific impact, self-regulation strategies, and experiences of online abuse. The survey, available in French, German, and English, was pilot-tested with 13 adolescent athletes before wider dissemination and was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the University of Liège. The authors noted the study was designed to fill a significant gap in research, as most existing work on social media and youth mental health has not focused specifically on athletic populations or the performance-related consequences of digital exposure.
The results painted a complex, ambivalent picture. A total of 93.4% of athletes said they used at least one social media platform, with Snapchat the most popular at 79.1%, followed closely by Instagram at 78.3% and TikTok at 63.0%. Facebook and Twitter were marginal, used by only 10.0% and 5.3% respectively. More than two-thirds of respondents, 67.7%, reported spending more than two hours per day on social media, and 81.8% said they also used other types of screen media such as films and video games. When asked why they used social media, the most common reasons were communicating with friends or family and leisure or distraction, but more than half said they followed sports news and 43.6% used the platforms to share or view sport-related content. The perceived impact on health was strikingly mixed: 64.1% said social media had both positive and negative effects on their health, while 24.1% said it was positive and 11.7% said it was negative. On the positive side, 57.1% reported receiving encouragement or sport-related support online that helped them in their sporting career, 41.2% said social media had a positive influence on their desire to train, and 22.0% perceived a positive effect on performance. Yet the negative findings were equally notable. Nearly half, 47.7%, said social media harmed their sleep quality, and 25.4% associated it with stress or anxiety. Pressure to maintain a certain online image was reported by 29.2%, and 59.6% said they compared themselves with others at least occasionally. Negative effects on self-confidence were reported by 16.0%, on self-image by 16.9%, on mood by 15.7%, and on eating habits by 10.6%. Perhaps most concerning for athletic development, 63.6% said the time spent online interfered with their training or recovery.
The influence of social media was not evenly distributed across the athlete population. Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that sex, age, sport type, competitive level, and platform choice all shaped the impact. Female athletes were significantly more likely than males to report pressure to maintain an image, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.7, and were also more likely to report social-media-related stress and anxiety (aOR 1.7), negative effects on self-confidence (aOR 2.2), negative effects on self-image (aOR 2.3), and negative effects on eating behaviours (aOR 1.6). Age also mattered: athletes older than 18 years reported greater pressure to maintain an online image and poorer sleep quality compared with younger athletes, with adjusted odds ratios of 1.6 and 1.8 respectively. Competitive level played a nuanced role. Amateur and competitive athletes were more likely than high-level and elite athletes to report stress and anxiety linked to social media, which the authors suggested may reflect less media training or less psychological support. At the same time, elite and world-class athletes were more likely to say social media had helped their career and were more likely to have relinquished image rights for sponsorship purposes; 32.3% of elite athletes reported such arrangements, compared with 23.6% of amateurs, 15.9% of competitive athletes, and 20.5% of high-level athletes. The type of sport also made a difference. Athletes in team sports had lower odds of negative effects on self-confidence and motivation, with adjusted odds ratios of 0.65 and 0.62 respectively, while athletes in sports commonly associated with betting, such as soccer, combat sports, racquet sports, and horse riding, were more vulnerable to stress and anxiety (aOR 1.5). Platform-specific patterns also emerged: Instagram use was associated with stronger perceived impacts on self-confidence, desire to train, and motivation, while TikTok use was associated with sleep disturbances, and Twitter use was linked to both sleep problems and reduced self-confidence.
Time spent on social media appeared to be one of the most important determinants of harm. The greater the daily exposure, the stronger the negative effects on sleep, mood, self-image, and feelings of isolation. Athletes who spent more than four hours per day on social media were far more likely to say it encroached on training or rest than those who spent under two hours, with figures of 76.7% versus 55.2%. Heavier users also reported more pressure to maintain an online image, and were more likely to have relinquished image rights or felt obliged to publish content because of sponsorship. Despite this, self-regulation was weak. While 59.6% of athletes said they had felt the need to take a break or limit their use, only 42.1% had actually implemented concrete strategies to do so. The likelihood of putting limits in place fell sharply with increasing exposure: 54.2% of those who used social media for under two hours daily had implemented strategies, compared with only 39.8% of those spending two to four hours, and 28.9% of those spending more than four hours. Athletes in individual sports were more proactive than team-sport athletes, with 47.9% versus 38.5% having taken concrete measures, while high-level athletes were the least likely to express the need to limit their use. Instagram users were more likely to report that social media interfered with training or rest (aOR 1.7), while TikTok users were significantly less likely to have implemented limiting strategies (aOR 0.46). The authors argued that these findings have direct performance implications, especially because sleep is essential for recovery, injury prevention, and psychological resilience, and because time spent online necessarily competes with training and rest.
Online abuse emerged as a serious but under-reported issue. Just over one in ten athletes, 10.4%, said they had been a victim of online abuse at some point in their lives. The consequences for those affected were substantial. Among victims, more than half reported moderate to severe effects on mood, sleep quality, and self-confidence, and about one third reported significant consequences for self-image and motivation to train. The authors noted that although only a minority described the impact as very severe, the effects were often cumulative across multiple areas of functioning. The prevalence of abuse varied by competitive level, with non-sport-related online abuse more common among amateur athletes, while sport-related online abuse was more frequently reported by elite and world-class athletes, likely reflecting their greater public visibility. Alarmingly, only 35.8% of victims sought help. Among those who did, the majority turned to friends or family, with 64.7% seeking support from that source, while just 20.6% contacted health professionals and only 5.9% spoke to a coach. The authors highlighted the fact that formal safeguarding and support pathways within sport appear to be underused, and that athletes may not know where to turn or may fear the consequences of reporting abuse. They linked these findings to broader international efforts, including the International Olympic Committee’s recent consensus statement on interpersonal violence and safeguarding in sport, which now explicitly includes digital spaces and online behaviours. The study reinforces that online abuse cannot be treated as a separate issue from athlete mental health, because it directly affects sleep, self-confidence, mood, and the desire to train, all of which are central to both wellbeing and performance.
Taken together, the findings suggest that social media is not simply good or bad for young athletes, but rather a powerful force that can support or undermine them depending on how, how much, and by whom it is used. The authors argue that intervention strategies should be tailored to the specific vulnerabilities revealed in the data. Female athletes, older adolescents, athletes in individual or betting-related sports, and those with high levels of exposure may need additional support. Platform-specific guidance may also be valuable, given the distinct risks associated with Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Educational programmes should focus on digital literacy, recognising the risks of social comparison and image pressure, managing online visibility, protecting sleep, and developing self-regulation skills. Importantly, the authors stress that the goal should not be to ban social media, but to help athletes monitor their usage and understand that the volume of exposure is a key determinant of impact. Coaches, parents, and sport organisations all have a role to play, but the authors also point to the responsibility of social media platforms themselves, whose algorithms, content moderation policies, and reporting systems shape the online environment. The authors acknowledge several limitations: the study relied on self-reported data, which may be affected by social desirability and inaccurate recall of screen time; the sample was geographically concentrated in Europe and North America; and some sports were represented by very small numbers. They also note that future research should examine the emerging influence of artificial intelligence on content amplification and online harassment. Nevertheless, the study provides strong evidence that social media has measurable, and often negative, effects on the mental health and performance of young athletes, and that safeguarding strategies must evolve to meet the realities of the digital age.
