A network analysis approach to core symptoms and symptom relationships of problematic social media use among young adults

ABSTRACT

Problematic social media use (PSMU) is a new and potentially addictive behavior causing a public health issue among young adults. PSMU has been extensively researched; however, prior studies primarily focus on the direct or indirect correlation of PSMU and other proximal or distal variables, rather than examining links with distinct factors or the importance of each factor in the development of PSMU. The current study, based on the Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model aimed to investigate the relationship between PSMU, the intensity and extent of social media usage, personal characteristics, negative emotions and cognitions, and self-control using network analysis. A total of 896 Chinese young adults (M_age = 20.57, SD = 2.00) were included in this study. The results showed that state-fear of missing out had the closest association with PSMU, followed by social network site usage intensity, social media self-control failure, and social media engagement, which were the strongest risk factors of PSMU. Social media engagement, fear of missing out, and social media self-control failure were the most core co-occurring symptoms with PSMU. Neuroticism was a distal factor that influenced the whole network. This study contributed to the conceptualization and visualization used to explain the development of PSMU and provided important theoretical and practical implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Problematic social media use
• fear of missing out
• social media self-control failure
• neuroticism
• network analysis

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 19BSH112]; Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology [Grant No. cstc2018jcyjAX0480], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant No. SWU1909226], and Graduate Student Scientific Research Innovation Projects of Southwest University [Grant No. SWUB23023].

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology: [Grant Number cstc2018jcyjAX0480]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities: [Grant Number SWU1909226]; National Social Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number 19BSH112]; Graduate Student Scientific Research Innovation Projects of Southwest University [Grant No. SWUB23023].

Notes on contributors

Jiayu Li

Jiayu Li is a PhD student at the Southwest University in China. Her research focuses on the fear of missing out and social media use in a new media environment [email: [email protected]].

Yuhong Zhou

Yuhong Zhou is a PhD student at the Southwest University in China. Her research focuses on emotion and Internet gaming disorder [email: [email protected]].

Xin Lv

Xin Lv is a postgraduate student at the Southwest University in China [email: [email protected]].

Xuechen Leng

Xuechen Leng is a PhD student at the Soochow University in China [email: [email protected]].

Xintong Jiang

Xintong Jiang is a PhD student at the Northeast Normal University in China [email: [email protected]].

Xuemei Gao

Xuemei Gao, PhD, is a Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at Southwest University. She is engaged in research on the psychological development and online behaviors of children and adolescents, especially combining psychology, physiology, and neuroscience to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms of new media, such as social media and video games [email: [email protected]].