Maheux, Anne J.Nesi, JacquelineGalla, Brian M.Roberts, Savannah R.Choukas-Bradley, Sophia2022-01-242022-01-242021-08-26Maheux, A.J., Nesi, J., Galla, B.M., Roberts, S.R. and Choukas-Bradley, S. (2021), #Grateful: Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ Social Media Use and Gratitude During the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Res Adolesc, 31: 734-747. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.126501532-7795https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/30095This article was originally published in Journal of Research on Adolescence. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12650During the COVID-19 pandemic, some ways of using social media—such as directly communicating with friends—may have helped adolescents thrive. We examined longitudinal associations between high school adolescents’ social media use and gratitude across a 15-month period before and during the pandemic (n = 704, Mage = 15.10; 52% girls). The trajectories of gratitude and the importance of social media for meaningful conversations with friends—but not frequency of social media use—were positively associated over time. At the within-person level, gratitude predicted increased importance of social media for meaningful conversations, but not vice-versa. Findings suggest that gratitude may be associated with and may motivate using social media to foster social connection, but may not increase overall social media use.en-USadolescencegratitudesocial mediaArticle