Daniel Joinson

Email: ta20395@bristol.ac.uk

Project title: The Digital Epidemiology of Social Media Behaviour and Mental Wellbeing in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)

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Supervisory team: Dr Oliver Davis (Primary), Dr Edwin Simpson (Primary), Professor Claire Haworth (Secondary), Professor Nello Christianini (Secondary)

 

Project summary

There is growing political and public interest in the impact of social media on mental health and wellbeing. Legislation or interventions aiming to address any potential risks should be informed by high quality evidence. Most previous studies exploring the relationship between social media and mental health focus on capturing the frequency at which people use these platforms, but this approach ignores the wide variety of ways people can engage with and experience social media. My PhD aims to address this, by investigating the relationship between specific behaviours and experiences on social media and mental health outcomes. To do this, I carried out five studies using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which includes both repeated questionnaire measures of mental health and data collected directly from Twitter. I have found evidence that nighttime use, frequency of public social interactions and the dynamics of emotion expression are associated with mental health outcomes.

Bio

I studied an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at Durham University (2017-2020), studying modules in Biology, Anthropology and Geography. My final project involved researching the potential causal effect of the gut microbiome on risk of major depressive disorder. 

In 2021 I completed an MSc in Epidemiology from the University of Bristol, comprising a dissertation researching the association between quality of student-teacher relationships and student mental health and well-being.  

I have a strong desire to apply my multidisciplinary background and knowledge of population health sciences to the development, delivery and critical evaluation of effective and innovative digital health interventions that will improve the health and well-being of populations. I am also interested in the potential use of digital approaches in epidemiological research, for example the utilisation of digital exposures and outcomes, and analysis of large datasets with AI techniques. I am highly motivated to pursue this research in areas especially relating to the mental health of populations. 

Research and activities

Published papers:

  • Active night-time tweeting is associated with meaningfully lower mental wellbeing in a UK birth cohort study. Published in Scientific Reports.
  • Twitter data as a linked digital phenotype in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Published in Wellcome Open Research.

Papers in peer review:

  • “Public relationship building behaviours on Twitter are not associated with improved mental health outcomes”. In peer review in Computers in Human Behaviour Reports.
  • “The Dynamics of Emotion Expression in Tweets are Associated with Depression and Anxiety”. In peer review in Emotion.

Other: