Some studies support the idea that social media leads to discontent in

As we know Between is used for comparing two items and among is used for comparring more than 2 items , we can eliminate Options A,B,E.
Now from C and D, we can see that in option C "which" refers to dissatisfaction which correctly conveys the intended meaning of the sentence correctly
Hence, Correct Answer C

Hi, can you explain why the OA is C?
I think there is S-V agreement is wrong in C : "Some other forces are behind...., which makes"
"Some other forces" are plural and should be followed by "makes"
Thank you.

Make VS Makes???


"Some other forces" -> Shouldn't it be plural, hence "make" should be used.

What can be the possible explanation for this?

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You mean - "should be followed by make", right?

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Oh I confidently selected D and got it wrong. I think the final split between C and D is meaning.
Overall meaning:
social media --> discontent but its possible that some other forces --> discontent --> more time on social media
Though I'm not happy with the structure but I guess it makes sense to use "which" to refer to "dissatisfaction among teenagers" and i guess that's why C is correct.

C. Some studies support the idea that social media leads to discontent in teenagers, but it is possible that some other forces are behind the increased incidences of dissatisfaction among teenagers, which makes

D. Social media can lead to discontent, as per some of the studies conducted on teenagers, but it is possible that some other forces behind the increased incidences of dissatisfaction among teenagers make

I think this one doesnt follow logically bc other forces are NOT directly causing the increased use of social media
for e.g. disappointment in oneself can cause discontent and discontent leads to usage of social media. I think thats what sentence is trying to say. LMK what you think?
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Yes I meant "make"
It was a typo

There is no S-V agreement issue in C.
In fact C corrects the S-V agreement issue in the option A.

By putting the part "but it is possible that some other forces are behind the increased incidences of dissatisfaction among teenagers" in comma means this is completely removalable.
Thereby
"Some studies support the idea that social media leads to discontent in teenagers which makes them spend more time on social media." is perfectly fine.

C- should be correct

A has between teenagers which is wrong.

E- uses the passive voice

The work which after comma modifies the dissatisfaction...The dissatisfaction makes them to spend more time... which jumps over the modifier of the word Dissatisfaction.

I answered (C) correctly but afterwards, upon reading the comments here, and going through the options C and D again and again, I agree that one has 50/50 chance of selecting either of these options.

So, my 2cents for why I chose C over D - "discontent" and "increased incidences of dissatisfaction among teenagers" as the main idea. In D, "some other forces behind X make Y" shifts the attention to Y.

For such questions that tries to shift the main idea, I have found it helpful to look for clues on the other "side" of the construction -
In this Q, the first clause hints that we are looking for possible causes of "discontent in teenagers", the part after "but" should bear some sort of parallelism as well.

EMPOWERgmatVerbal EMPOWERgmatRichC GMATNinja KarishmaB
egmat and all GMAT expert

Can you please share your analysis of this question

I selected B
Eliminated A, C and E since because which modifies the immediately preceeding noun thus in this case, modifies teeanger which is wrong. As per the intended meaning, it should be modifying "factors"
Between B and D, D has awkward construction because of "Social media can lead to discontent, as per some of the studies conducted on teenagers", rather it better to state "Some studies support the idea that social media can lead to discontent in teenagers"

Hi Team egmat KarishmaB

In option C -

Can 'which' refer to "increased incidences of dissatisfaction".

When I attempted this question, I inferred that the increase in incidences (plural) of dissatisfaction made teenages spend more time on social media, therefore reasoned out that the verb should have been 'make' instead of makes.

Can you let me know the flaw in my reasoning ?

Essentially I am trying to understand the reason 'which' refers to dissatisfaction and not "increased incidences of dissatisfaction"
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Rickooreo

It has to be between (C) and (D) because for the group as a whole, we will use 'among,' not 'between.'
Option (C) uses 'which' to refer to the previous clause (which = 'some other forces are behind the increased incidences of dissatisfaction among teenagers'). Though this usage has been seen on GMAT, it is much less preferable.

Option (D)'s meaning is somewhat different from the other options - 'social media leads to discontent in teenagers' is the idea in other options, not 'social media leads to discontent.'
Also, what makes them spend more time on social media? 'Other forces' (as per options (B) and (D)) or the phenomenon that 'some other forces cause increased incidences of dissatisfaction between teenagers' (as per other options).

So I am not sure what call to take.
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KarishmaB Thank you for the detailed analysis.
Appreciate your time spent in sharing the approach

Solution:
Original sentence identification-
1st parity identified -------------> Teenagers representing multiple number of people and not just two, hence incorrect use of the word between. (Eliminates A, B and E due to obvious repeaters)

Other Options Left- C and D
C --------------------> seems fine
D --------------------> discusses studies on students (too specific and change of intended meaning), hence Eliminated.
Hence ans: C

but why it modifies dissatisfaction and not incidents?

which refers to the preceding noun. This is a general rule accepted in every GMAT SC questions and in every official question, I did not come across a single question not obeying the same.
But I am really confused here with the answer option.
Why does the correct answer choice violates the accepted GMAT norm ?

I think the question is wrong in many ways.