Association between psychosocial well-being and problematic social networking sites use among Finnish young adults: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background: There are over 2 billion social networking sites users worldwide and the amount of the users are rising rapidly. (Baumgartner et al., 2017;Hussain & Starcevic, 2020.) In Finland young adults are using SNS the most and are thus potentially more exposed to its effects (Baumgartner et al., 2017). For some people a pattern of problematic social networking sites (PSNS) use can be developed (Hussain & Starcevic, 2020). More knowledge is needed about how PSNS use is associated to young adult's well-being in psychosocial level and is there some background factors which are associated to PSNS use. Identifying those associations was the aim of the current study. Method: A cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected with a national web-based survey from Finnish young adults (18-35 years old) (n=383) during autumn 2020. The questionnaire consisted of three areas 1) background factors (e.g. gender, age, education), lifestyles, loneliness, quality of life;2) use of digital technologies and SNS (e.g. frequency and volume of use of digital devices, problematic SNS, use of SNS during the COVID-19 pandemic);3) psychosocial well-being (e.g. depression, social pressure). Results: The results will be announced in the conference. Conclusions: Conclusions will be announced in the conference. This research provides new information about PSNS use and its effects to young adults' psychosocial well-being. The results can be used in student and occupational health care and the results will help to identify factors which would cause PSNS use and the resulting disadvantages.