The IRL Trial: A school-based trial to reduce social media use and improve mental health among adolescents

We will trial an intervention that aims to reduce social media use among secondary school pupils in years 8, 9, and 10. This will be a parallel-arm cluster randomised trial in which school year groups are randomised at a 1:1 ratio to the intervention or a treatment-as-usual control condition. The intervention will entail a smartphone app that limits use of social media apps such as TikTok and Snapchat, using a coproduced combination of a daily ‘budget’ and a nighttime ‘curfew’. The primary study outcome will be self- reported anxiety, with secondary outcomes including sleep quality, time spent with friends and family, and bullying. All pupils will be eligible to participate, and we will focus on the subgroup with symptoms of anxiety at baseline. The focus on pupils with symptoms at baseline will demonstrate whether social media limitations can contribute to prevention at an early stage. The trial will also include qualitative research and quantitative mediation analysis to understand participants’ experience of the intervention and how it contributes to improved mental health. The research will be done in Bradford, UK.