This is a fantastic and crucial step for any robust review! Getting your search terms right will make a huge difference in the quality and comprehensiveness of your results. Let's break it down by category and then look at how to combine them.

1) Brainstorm Synonyms and Related Terms

We'll categorize them into the main concepts: Social Media, Adolescents, Mental Health, and Impact/Relationship Terms.

A. Social Media (and related digital platforms/behaviors)

• Core Terms:


• Social media


• Social networking


• Online platforms


• Digital media


• Internet use


• Screen time


• Smartphone use


• Mobile phone use


• Digital technology


• Online communication


• Specific Platforms (consider including key ones, especially for recent research):


• Facebook


• Instagram


• TikTok


• Snapchat


• Twitter (or X)


• YouTube


• Reddit


• Discord


• Pinterest


• Tumblr


• LinkedIn (less likely for adolescents, but depends on review scope)


• Related Concepts/Behaviors:


• Cyberbullying


• Online harassment


• Social comparison


• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)


• Internet addiction


• Social media addiction


• Problematic internet use


• Problematic social media use


• Digital engagement


• Online identity


• Influencer culture


• Algorithmic feed


• "doomscrolling" (emerging term, might not be in subject headings yet)

B. Adolescents (Target Population)

• Core Terms:


• Adolescent (use truncation for adolescent, adolescents)


• Teenager* (teenager, teenagers, teens)


• Youth


• Young person* (young person, young people)


• Juvenile* (less common for mental health, but sometimes used)


• Age Ranges (useful for filtering or specific searches):


• "aged 10-19"


• "aged 12-18"


• "young adult*" (be careful, this often extends into early 20s, so might need to be combined with age filters)


• "student*" (can be too broad, but useful in some contexts)


• "high school"


• "middle school"

C. Mental Health (and specific conditions/indicators)

• Core Terms (general):


• Mental health


• Well-being (or wellbeing)


• Psychological well-being


• Emotional health


• Psychological distress


• Mental illness


• Mental disorder


• Psychopathology


• Behavioral health


• Specific Conditions/Symptoms (negative impacts):


• Depression (or depressive symptom*, major depressive disorder)


• Anxiety (or anxious symptom*, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety)


• Stress


• Loneliness


• Social isolation


• Self-esteem (or low self-esteem)


• Body image (or body dissatisfaction, body dysmorphia)


• Eating disorder* (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder)


• Sleep disorder* (insomnia, sleep quality, sleep disturbance)


• Suicide (or suicidal ideation, self-harm, non-suicidal self-injury)


• Substance use (or addiction, problematic substance use)


• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (less direct, but social media can impact focus)


• Conduct disorder*


• Aggression (or aggressive behavior)


• Psychotic symptom*


• Positive Indicators (if your review considers both sides):


• Resilience


• Coping strateg*


• Social support


• Belonging

D. Impact/Relationship Terms

• General Terms:


• Impact* (impact, impacts, impacting, impacted)


• Effect* (effect, effects, affecting)


• Influence* (influence, influences, influencing)


• Consequence*


• Outcome*


• Association*


• Relationship*


• Correlation*


• Link*


• Connection*


• Contribute*


• Exacerbate*


• Mitigate* (if looking at protective factors)


• Predictor*


• Determinant*


• Directional Terms (if focusing on positive or negative specifically):


• Harm* (harm, harmful)


• Detrimental


• Negative


• Positive


• Beneficial


• Risk factor*


• Protective factor*

2) How to Combine Terms for Effective Searching

Now that you have your lists, the key is using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and truncation (*) effectively.

• OR: Use to combine synonyms within a concept. (e.g., (adolescent OR teenager OR youth)) – this broadens your search.


• AND: Use to combine different concepts. (e.g., (social media) AND (adolescent)) – this narrows your search to articles that contain terms from all* specified concepts.


• NOT: Use to exclude irrelevant terms (use with caution, as it can exclude relevant articles). (e.g., (social media) NOT (adults) if your database doesn't allow age filtering).


• **Truncation (*):** Finds variations of a word (e.g., adolescent* finds "adolescent," "adolescents," "adolescence").


• Phrase Searching (" "): Use for exact phrases (e.g., "mental health", "social media addiction").

Example Search Strings (building complexity)

Step 1: Simple & Broad
"social media" AND adolescent* AND "mental health"

Step 2: Adding Synonyms (within each concept using OR)
(social media OR "social networking" OR Instagram OR TikTok OR Snapchat OR "screen time") AND (adolescent OR teenager OR youth OR "young people") AND ("mental health" OR depression OR anxiety OR "self-esteem" OR "psychological distress")

Step 3: Refining with Impact Terms & Specifics
(social media OR "social networking" OR Instagram OR TikTok OR Snapchat OR "screen time" OR cyberbullying OR "online harassment") AND (adolescent OR teenager OR youth OR "young people" OR "aged 10-19") AND ("mental health" OR "psychological well-being" OR depression OR anxiety OR loneliness OR "body image" OR "eating disorder" OR "suicidal ideation" OR "self-harm" OR "sleep disturbance") AND (impact OR effect OR influence OR "risk factor*")

Step 4: Considering positive/negative if needed
If you want to focus on negative impacts:
(social media OR "social networking" OR Instagram OR TikTok OR Snapchat OR "screen time" OR cyberbullying OR "online harassment") AND (adolescent OR teenager OR youth OR "young people" OR "aged 10-19") AND ("mental health" OR "psychological distress" OR depression OR anxiety OR loneliness OR "body dissatisfaction" OR "eating disorder" OR "suicidal ideation" OR "self-harm" OR "sleep problems") AND (harm OR detrimental OR negative OR adverse OR "risk factor*" OR "problematic use")

Advanced Tips for Your Review:

• Database Specifics: When searching in databases like PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, etc., look for their specific subject headings (e.g., MeSH terms in PubMed, Emtree terms in Embase, Thesaurus terms in PsycINFO). These controlled vocabularies are often more powerful than just keyword searching. For example, "Adolescent" might be a MeSH term, or "Social Media" or "Mental Health."


• Iterative Process: Your initial searches will likely yield too many or too few results. Adjust your terms – add more synonyms, remove less relevant ones, narrow/broaden age ranges, or specify platforms.


• Check Reference Lists: Once you find a highly relevant article, check its bibliography for other key papers.


• Pilot Search: Run a few of your more comprehensive strings in your target databases to see the types of results you get. This will help you refine your terms before your full systematic search.


• Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria: Clearly define what constitutes "adolescent" (e.g., 10-19 years old) and specific mental health outcomes to guide your term selection and subsequent screening.