The effect of problematic social media use on perceived stress in adolescents

Background

Problematic social media use has become a growing public health concern in adolescence. Examining its effect on perceived stress is key to better understanding emotional vulnerability during this developmental stage. The current study aims to analyze the effect of problematic social media use on adolescents’ perceived stress.

Methods

A total of 338 students aged 12–16 years from Gipuzkoa participated in the study. Information was collected on sociodemographic variables, cyberbullying (CTQ), problematic social media use (SPIU-SNS: total score, preference for online interaction, mood regulation, cognitive preoccupation, compulsive use, and negative outcomes) and perceived stress (PSS-10). A Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) was constructed to illustrate the relationships among the study variables and to identify the appropriate adjustment set. Total and direct effects were estimated using linear regression models. Total effect was estimated adjusting for age, gender and parental education, while the direct effect was additionally adjusted for cyberbullying.

Results

The sample was made up of 55.9% girls. The preliminary results showed no statistically significant differences in stress levels by gender, nor in problematic social media use. The estimated total effect of problematic social media use on perceived stress was β = 0.104 [95% CI (0.070, 0.137), p = <0.001], and the direct effect was β = 0.105 [95% CI (0.017, 0.139, p = <0.001]. These results are consistent across all subscales. As both estimates and their confidence intervals largely overlapped, there was no statistical evidence supporting a mediating role of cyberbullying victimization.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the problematic social media use predicts higher perceived stress levels in adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the problematic social media use as a public health issue for promoting preventive strategies to protect adolescents’ well-being.

Key messages

• Problematic social media use predicts higher levels of perceived stress in adolescents.

• Due to its impact on health, problematic social media use is a public health concern.