INTRODUCTION The potential benefits of supportive interactions on social networking sites on adolescents' mental health are promising; however, no systematic evaluation has been conducted on this topic. This review examined empirical research on the relationship between social support derived from social networking sites and adolescents' mental health both theoretically and empirically. METHODS Followed PRISMA guidelines, we conducted a systematic literature search on six English and three Chinese databases in February 2020. Four thousand one hundred and seventy-seven articles were screened first by title, then abstract, and lastly, full articles. RESULTS Fourteen studies (five English and nine Chinese) were identified, with total sample of 11,616 adolescents (age: 10-19 years; females: 42.7%-56.3%). Meta-analysis showed that the correlation of online social support with self-esteem was moderate and significant (r = .29), but with depression was small and insignificant (r = -.09). Sensitivity analysis indicated that social support from acquaintances on the internet may not be as beneficial as from real-life acquaintances. Despite that there isn't enough research on other specific mental health outcomes to run a quantitative synthesis, individual studies suggest that online social support (OSS) may be associated with increased self-identity and life satisfaction, decreased loneliness and social anxiety, it also counteracts the negative effect of stress and cyberbullying on mental health. CONCLUSIONS OSS might be beneficial for adolescents' mental health, especially self-esteem, although the causal relationship requires longitudinal studies to confirm, and the underlying mechanisms need further investigation.

中文翻译：

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在线社会支持与青少年心理健康的关系：系统评价和荟萃分析。

引言 社交网站上的支持性互动对青少年心理健康的潜在益处是有希望的；然而，尚未对这一主题进行系统评价。本综述从理论上和实证上对来自社交网站的社会支持与青少年心理健康之间的关系进行了实证研究。方法按照PRISMA指南，于2020年2月对6个英文数据库和3个中文数据库进行了系统的文献检索。4177篇文章首先按标题筛选，然后是摘要，最后是全文。结果 确定了 14 项研究（5 项英文和 9 项中文），总样本为 11,616 名青少年（年龄：10-19 岁；女性：42.7%-56.3%）。荟萃分析显示，在线社会支持与自尊的相关性为中等且显着（r = .29），但与抑郁的相关性很小且不显着（r = -.09）。敏感性分析表明，来自互联网熟人的社会支持可能不如来自现实生活中的熟人的有益。尽管对其他特定心理健康结果的研究不足以进行定量综合，但个别研究表明，在线社会支持 (OSS) 可能与增加自我认同和生活满意度、减少孤独感和社交焦虑有关，它也抵消压力和网络欺凌对心理健康的负面影响。结论 OSS 可能有益于青少年的心理健康，尤其是自尊、