The Protective Role of Resilience in the Development of Social Media Addiction in Tertiary Students and Psychometric Properties of the Slovenian Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS).
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 19(20)2022 Oct 13.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2071438
ABSTRACT
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became one of the most utilized sources of information relating to the disease. With the increased reliance on social media, the risk of excessive use and the development of social media addiction emerges. The aim of the present study was to explore the psychometric properties of the Slovenian version of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, and to explore how psychological resilience affects social media addiction symptoms directly and indirectly through symptoms of depression, anxiety and mental distress. A large online cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2021 among Slovenian tertiary students (N = 4868). The results showed the high reliability, unidimensionality and criterion validity of the Slovenian Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. The proposed structural model fit the data well and showed a significant direct positive effect of depression and stress on social media addiction. Moreover, the majority of the negative effects of psychological resilience on social media addiction (87.2%) were indirect, through depression and stress symptoms, whereas resilience had a significantly smaller impact on social media addiction by reducing anxiety symptoms. The overall prevalence of social media addiction symptoms was 4.6%, with females exhibiting higher proportions than men. Additionally, female social media users reported a complete absence of social media addiction symptoms less often compared to males. Future research should further explore the mechanisms behind social media addiction, in order to gain a better understanding of the apparently different risk levels for both genders.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Behavior, Addictive
/
Social Media
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Ijerph192013178
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS