Does loneliness mediate the association between social media use disorder and sexual function in Lebanese university students?

ABSTRACT

Research on the association between social media use disorder (SMUD) and face-to-face sexual function remains controversial, surprisingly scarce and even non-existing in certain vulnerable populations such as university students. We aimed to explore the mediating role of loneliness between SMUD and two dimensions of sexual function (sexual arousal and desire) in a sample of Lebanese university students. A total of 363 university students participated in a cross-sectional survey. Sexual Dysfunction Questionnaire, Jong-Gierveld Loneliness Scale and Social Media Use Disorder scale were used to measure sexual function (desire and arousal), loneliness and SMUD respectively. The mediation analysis results showed that loneliness mediated the association between SMUD and sexual arousal (but not sexual desire). Higher SMUD was significantly associated with more loneliness, whereas more loneliness was significantly associated with less sexual arousal. Subsequently, higher SMUD was significantly associated with less sexual arousal. The present findings edge the university staff, clinicians, and researchers towards the psychological mechanisms that may help university students improve their sexual function, and calls for additional research in this area. Attention should be given to the possible potential role of moderating social media use in tackling loneliness and improving students’ sexual function. In addition, routine sexual counseling should be considered when assessing and intervening with students having SMUD.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media use disorder
• loneliness
• sexual function
• students
• Lebanon

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all participants who helped us during this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors’ contributions

SO and SH designed the study; FFR, MB drafted the manuscript; PH, DM, and RR assisted in writing; SH carried out the analysis and interpreted the results; SG was responsible for the data collection; all authors reviewed the final manuscript and gave their consent.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.