Bidirectional Influences Between Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional) | RFA MH 23 116

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA MH 23 116

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released this discretionary grant opportunity, RFA-MH-23-116, titled "Bidirectional Influences Between Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)." The main goal is to support exploratory, early-stage research that clarifies how adolescent social media use and mental health affect each other over time. The emphasis on "bidirectional influences" means projects should move beyond one-direction explanations (for example, only asking whether social media causes harm) and instead examine the feedback loop: how patterns of social media engagement may shape mental health outcomes, and how existing mental health symptoms or psychiatric risk may in turn shape the way adolescents use social media.

For this FOA, social media is defined broadly as internet-based communication platforms and applications where users interact by creating, sharing, or consuming content. The target population is adolescents, defined here as ages 10 to 20, reflecting both early adolescence and the transition into young adulthood, when access to phones and platforms typically increases and youth have more autonomy over what they view, post, and engage with. The research scope includes adolescent mental health, psychiatric symptoms, and factors that contribute to either risk for psychopathology or resilience against it. In practice, this could include studying trajectories of anxiety, depression, stress, loneliness, sleep disruption, suicidality-related correlates, body image concerns, or other symptom clusters, while also measuring the specific ways adolescents use social media (frequency, type of engagement, passive scrolling versus active posting, social comparison, exposure to harmful or supportive content, network characteristics, and so on).

The funding mechanism is an NIH R21, which is generally intended for novel, high-impact, exploratory projects that can generate foundational data, new methods, or strong preliminary evidence to justify larger future studies. While the FOA indicates "Clinical Trial Optional," it explicitly states that no effectiveness or efficacy trials will be accepted. In other words, applicants are not expected to run intervention studies designed to test whether a program or treatment improves outcomes. The focus is on understanding mechanisms, patterns, temporal ordering, and contextual factors that explain how social media behaviors and mental health interact, rather than evaluating whether a particular intervention works.

The award ceiling is listed as $275,000, and the original closing date for the opportunity was March 24, 2023, with the FOA created on December 29, 2022. The funding activity category is health, and the CFDA number associated with the program is 93.242. These details matter for applicants because they signal the general scale and purpose of the funding: relatively modest, time-limited support aimed at pushing the science forward quickly through focused, well-designed studies.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of domestic applicants: state, county, city, township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and small businesses. The FOA also highlights additional eligible applicant categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs), Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities and regional organizations. This wide eligibility reflects an intent to encourage diverse research settings and perspectives, including community-based and culturally grounded approaches and studies that can address disparities in adolescent mental health and digital experiences.

Overall, this opportunity is centered on building a clearer, evidence-based understanding of how adolescent mental health and social media use shape each other, with an explicit preference for research that can untangle directionality and dynamics rather than simply documenting correlations. Projects that fit well are likely to feature strong conceptual models of reciprocal influence, careful measurement of both social media exposure/behavior and mental health indicators, and designs capable of capturing change over time or context (for example, longitudinal cohorts, intensive repeated measures, or other approaches suited to separating cause, consequence, and reinforcing cycles), while staying away from intervention efficacy testing.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Bidirectional Influences Between Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health (R21 Clinical Trial Optional)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.242.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-12-29.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-03-24. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $275,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA MH 23 116

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