Digital well-being on TikTok among Spanish adolescents: usage patterns, gender differences, and content consumption

The study investigates adolescent digital well-being within the social media context, focusing specifically on TikTok use among Spanish teenagers aged 12–18. It is motivated by rising mental health concerns in adolescents and mixed evidence linking social media use to well-being. Digital well-being is conceptualized as a subjective, sociocultural construct reflecting the balance of benefits and drawbacks of digital connectivity, encompassing emotional resilience, agency over technology, social connections, and communion with the digital world. Spain reports high prevalence of adolescent mental health problems and problematic social media use, with TikTok being particularly popular among minors. The research aims to fill gaps by examining TikTok usage patterns (time and content consumption), gender differences, and how these relate to distinct dimensions of digital well-being.

Prior research highlights increased adolescent mental health issues, potentially exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and higher social media consumption. Digital well-being is theorized as a dynamic balance of benefits and harms from mobile connectivity, often distinguished from mental illness by including positive mental health and subjective well-being. Studies suggest platform-specific effects on well-being; indiscriminate measures like total screen time yield inconclusive results. TikTok differs from other platforms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook) by emphasizing entertainment and algorithmic content, with passive consumption prevalent among adolescents. Findings from other platforms show passive use is linked to lower subjective well-being, while active use may improve it. Gender differences in social media use are documented, with girls tending to use social media more frequently; some studies report higher TikTok addiction in young female users. Spain-specific research on digital well-being or TikTok is scarce and often focuses on education, family contexts, advertising, and influencer content creation rather than content consumption. This study responds to calls to examine platform-specific use patterns and to move beyond screen time, considering specific content types and gender differences.

Design and measures: The study adapted Prakash (2023) Digital Well-being scale to reference TikTok use, assessing three dimensions after factor analysis: emotional resilience, agency, and social connection and communion (the latter merging the original social connection and communion dimensions). Responses used a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), where higher scores reflect higher digital well-being on TikTok.

Factor structure and reliability: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported the adapted structure. Bartlett’s test of sphericity χ²(78)=3363.65, p<0.001 indicated non-random correlations; KMO=0.83 supported sampling adequacy. Principal Axis extraction with Varimax rotation yielded three factors explaining 60.46% of variance: (1) emotional resilience, (2) agency, and (3) social connection and communion (combining two original dimensions). Reliability was acceptable across subscales: emotional resilience α=0.79, agency α=0.82, social connection and communion α=0.83.

Sample and procedure: The analytic sample comprised N=737 Spanish adolescents (343 male, 394 female), aged 12–18. TikTok usage time was self-reported in daily minutes across six categories. Type of content consumption was measured across multiple TikTok content categories on a 5-point frequency scale from 1 (never) to 5 (always).

Data analysis: IBM SPSS 25.0 was used. Analyses included reliability and EFA for the adapted scale; descriptive statistics for all variables; Pearson’s chi-square for gender differences in time of use; independent samples t-tests for gender differences in content consumption and digital well-being dimensions; one-way ANOVAs (with Scheffé post hoc) to test effects of time of use on digital well-being dimensions; and bivariate correlations between content categories and digital well-being dimensions. Statistical significance was set at α=0.05.

TikTok time of use: The most common daily use category was 31–60 minutes (21.30%), followed by 121+ minutes (20.22%). Gender differences in time of use were significant, χ²(5, N=737)=15.30, p=0.01; girls were more likely than boys to use TikTok 121+ minutes per day (53 males vs. 96 females; adjusted residual Z≈±3.0, p=0.00), while boys were more likely to use up to 10 minutes per day (33 males vs. 19 females; adjusted residual Z≈±2.5, p=0.01).

Content consumption and gender: Overall, comedy (M=3.30±1.10) and music (M=3.18±1.06) were most consumed, followed by influencers/streamers news (M=2.89±1.10) and dance/lip-sync trends (M=2.72±1.15). Boys most consumed comedy, video games, music, and professional sports; girls most consumed comedy, music, fashion, and beauty. T-tests showed boys consumed significantly more comedy (t=3.30, p<0.001), video games (t=12.02, p<0.001), and professional sports (t=8.65, p<0.001); girls consumed more dance/lip-sync (t=-3.49, p<0.001), music (t=-2.10, p=0.04), travel (t=-2.78, p=0.01), leisure (t=-2.89, p=0.01), beauty (t=-15.10, p<0.001), fashion (t=-13.95, p<0.001), food (t=-4.00, p<0.001), psychology (t=-2.42, p=0.02), and other well-being-related content (t=-3.45, p<0.001). Several categories showed no significant gender differences.

Digital well-being levels: Mean scores were emotional resilience M=3.31±0.60, agency M=3.22±0.91, social connection and communion M=3.64±0.57. No significant gender differences were found in any dimension (emotional resilience t≈0.15, ns; agency t≈-1.05, ns; social connection and communion t≈-1.79, ns).

Effect of time of use on digital well-being: ANOVA showed a significant effect of time of use on agency, F(5,731)=7.48, p=0.00. Scheffé post hoc: heavy users (121+ minutes; M=2.93±0.98) had significantly lower agency than users in up to 10 minutes (M=3.53±0.82), 11–30 minutes (M=3.47±0.85), and 31–60 minutes (M=3.33±0.82) categories, indicating reduced capacity to set limits with increased use.

Content consumption correlations: Emotional resilience correlated positively with music (r=0.16, p<0.01), books/films/TV/reality (r=0.16, p<0.01), travel (r=0.16, p<0.01), and various knowledge content (r=0.16, p<0.01). Agency correlated with various knowledge (r=0.14, p<0.01), books/films/TV/reality (r=0.13, p<0.01), travel (r=0.12, p<0.01), and leisure (r=0.11, p<0.01). Social connection and communion correlated with fashion (r=0.14, p<0.01), comedy (r=0.13, p<0.01), beauty (r=0.12, p<0.01), and dance/lip-sync trends (r=0.12, p<0.01).

Findings address the research questions by demonstrating that Spanish adolescents’ TikTok use is substantial, with a notable proportion reporting high daily usage. Gender differences are clear in both time of use and patterns of content consumption, reflecting persistent traditional gendered preferences under passive consumption conditions. Despite these differences, adolescents of both genders report similarly positive levels of digital well-being on TikTok across emotional resilience, agency, and social connection/communion, suggesting possible platform-specific dynamics distinct from other social networks where passive use often relates to lower well-being. Importantly, heavier TikTok use is associated with reduced agency to set boundaries, consistent with concerns about infinite scroll designs facilitating addictive-like behaviors. Content-type correlations imply that consumption of culture-related content may be linked to better emotion management and agency, while fashion/beauty/comedy/dance content may foster feelings of social connection and community within TikTok’s participatory culture. These results underscore the need to consider platform-specific features and nuanced measures of use (beyond screen time) when assessing digital well-being.

The study contributes Spain-specific evidence on TikTok use among adolescents and its relation to digital well-being. Key conclusions are: a sizable share of teens use TikTok more than 90 minutes daily and primarily consume entertainment-focused content (comedy, music, influencers, dance/lip-sync); adolescents self-report generally positive digital well-being across emotional resilience, agency, and social connection/communion; girls tend to have longer usage times than boys and differ in content preferences, yet digital well-being appears similar across genders; greater daily use correlates with reduced agency to set limits; and specific content categories show small positive associations with digital well-being dimensions. Future research should deepen platform-specific analyses (especially TikTok), incorporate objective use measures, and explore links between digital well-being and related constructs (problematic use, addiction, subjective well-being, mental health symptoms), including gender-sensitive and sociocultural contexts. Policy and practice should prioritize promoting balanced, moderate use, algorithmic audits to mitigate addictive features, and parental education to recognize problematic patterns while supporting healthy digital habits.

Generalizability is limited by the focus on Spain and by considering digital well-being as a sociocultural phenomenon; findings may not translate to other contexts without caution. Time of use was self-reported, potentially underestimating actual usage compared to objective measures. Although content types were analyzed, other influential factors (e.g., user motivations, feelings) were not included and may mediate relationships. The cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. Platform-specific features may produce unique effects, suggesting caution in extrapolating to other social networks.