Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-22-2024
Publication Title
Psychology Research and Behavior Management
Volume
17
Pages
4009–4020
Publisher Name
Dovepress Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Purpose: Previous research points to a complex relation between social media use and mental health, with open questions remaining with respect to mediation pathways and potential sociodemographic moderators. The present research investigated the extent to which experiences of cyberbullying victimization mediate the link between greater social media use and poorer mental health in adults and whether such indirect effects are moderated by gender or age. Participants and Methods: As part of a larger study, US adults (N = 502) completed an online survey that included measures of degree of social media use, cyberbullying victimization, depression, anxiety, substance use, and sociodemographic characteristics including gender and age. Results: A series of moderated mediation models revealed a robust indirect effect of cyberbullying victimization on the relation between degree of social media use and mental health, such that greater social media use was associated with higher levels of cyberbullying victimization and greater cyberbullying victimization was associated with increased depression, anxiety, and likelihood of substance use. There was no evidence that the mediation effects varied between men and women. Age did, however, moderate the mediation effects for anxiety and likelihood of substance use, with stronger mediation effects emerging for younger compared to older adults. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the importance of empirical investigations that shed a more nuanced light on the complex relation between social media and mental health
Recommended Citation
Barragan N, Batista A, Hall DL, Silva YN. Social Identity, Social Media Use, and Mental Health in Adults: Investigating the Mediating Role of Cyberbullying Experiences and the Moderating Effects of Gender and Age. Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2024;17:4009-4020 https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S466965
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Copyright Statement
© Dovepress, 2024.
Comments
Author Posting © The Author(s), 2024. This article is posted here by permission of Dovepress Taylor & Francis Group for personal use and non-commercial redistribution. This article was published open access in Psychology Research and Behavior Management, Vol. 17 (August 2024), https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S466965.