Problematic Social Media Use and Social Connectedness in Adolescence: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Family Life Satisfaction

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00410-0 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Problematic Social Media Use and Social Connectedness in Adolescence: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Family Life Satisfaction Mustafa Savci 1 & Muhammed Akat 2 & Mustafa Ercengiz 3 & Mark D. Griffiths 4 Ferda Aysan 5 & Accepted: 7 October 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Problematic social media use (PSMU) among adolescents has become an area of increasing research interest in recent years. It is known that PSMU is negatively associated with social connectedness. The present study examined the role of family life satisfaction in this relationship by investigating its mediating and moderating role in the relationship between problematic social use and social connectedness. The present study comprised 549 adolescents (296 girls and 253 boys) who had used social media for at least 1 year and had at least one social media account. The measures used included the Social Media Disorder Scale, Social Connectedness Scale, and Family Life Satisfaction Scale. Mediation and moderation analyses were performed using Hayes’s Process program. Regression analysis showed that PSMU negatively predicted family life satisfaction and social connectedness. In addition, family life satisfaction and PSMU predicted social connectedness. Mediation analysis showed that family life satisfaction had a significant mediation effect in the relationship between PSMU and social connectedness. Family life satisfaction was partially mediated in the relationship between PSMU and social connectedness. Moderation analysis showed that family life satisfaction did not have a significant effect on the relationship between PSMU and social connectedness. The study suggests that family life satisfaction is a meaningful mediator (but not a moderator) in the relationship between problematic social media use and social connectedness. Keywords Problematic social media use . Social networking . Social connectedness . Family life satisfaction . Mediation analysis . Moderation analysis . Adolescence Over the past 20 years, Internet use has grown in most countries worldwide and has become an important tool in almost every aspect of an individual’s day-to-day lives. The Internet can be * Mark D. Griffiths Extended author information available on the last page of the article International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction used for many different activities including (among other things) communicating, having fun, learning, gaming, shopping, and gambling (Castellacci and Vinas-Bardolet 2019; Gross 2004; Yavuz 2019). One of the most popular activities on the Internet is social networking, and more generally social media use in all its many forms. Social media applications such as Facebook and Instagram provide the opportunity to meet different people by creating personal profiles, and facilitates the personal communicating, sharing, and expressing of ideas about an event or situation with others in different places globally (Griffiths et al. 2014; Treem et al. 2016). Social networking has increased the prevalence of online use worldwide with the many opportunities and outlets provided to its users. According to a PEW Research Center (2019) social media usage report, 72% of Americans use at least one social media application. According to We Are Social (2019), 45% of the world’s population actively uses social media (Kemp 2019). Furthermore, the average daily time spent using social media in the world is 2 h and 16 min (Kemp 2019). Like problematic Internet use, increasing frequency of social media use can lead to an increase in problematic social media use among a minority of users (Savci et al. 2020). Conceptually, the abuse of social media use has been referred to (among others) as social media addiction (Andreassen et al. 2017), social media disorder (Savci and Aysan 2018), excessive social media use (Griffiths and Szabo 2014), problematic social media use (Meena et al. 2012; Savci et al. 2019), compulsive use of social media (De Cock et al. 2014), and pathological social media use (Holmgren and Coyne 2017). Although these problems are conceptualized with different labels, they point to the same problem. In this paper, the term “problematic social media use” (PSMU) is used. It has been found that PSMU is positively associated with depression, anxiety, psychological stress, sleep disorders, and cyber victimization (Byrne et al. 2018; Keles et al. 2019; Levenson et al. 2016). Although PSMU is associated with many psychological problems, like Internet addiction, it is not classified as a disorder in the DSM-5 (Savci and Griffiths 2019). For the majority of individuals, social media use is enjoyable and beneficial. The use of social media enables individuals to communicate with friends and family as well as to establish new social relationships (Savci 2019). Also on social media, comments and “likes” from friends, family, or other people can provide social support. Social support positively affects life satisfaction (Zhan et al. 2016). Beyens et al. (2016) emphasize that adolescents use social media to meet the needs of connectedness and popularity. According to Deci and Ryan’s (2008) self-determination theory, there are three psychological need satisfactions: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy refers to doing something optional. Competence is about the ability to build and maintain social relationships. Relatedness is the establishment of positive emotional relationships with people. Consequently, social media satisfies all three psychological needs of self-determination theory. Finally, families use social media to control and communicate with their children. Consequently, this increases the connectedness of individuals in the family (Doty and Dworkin 2014). Although social media positively affects users, excessive use of social media can cause problematic use. Social connectedness is one of the important variables for adolescent healthy development (Stoddard et al. 2011). The need to belong is one of the most basic needs of people and is present among all people at different levels and forms (Baumeister and Leary 1995). Maslow’s (1954) need to love and belong in the hierarchy of needs is a need that follows physiological and safety needs (Koltko-Rivera 2006). The use of social media enables adolescents to communicate with their peers online and meets the need for adolescents to belong (Davis 2012). On the other hand, when social media is used problematically, it negatively affects International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction social connectedness (Savci and Aysan 2017). One of the variables associated with PSMU is family life satisfaction (Li et al. 2014; Wu et al. 2016). Family life satisfaction is influenced by variables such as psychological health, positive attitudes of family members, and well-being of family members (Agate et al. 2009). PSMU may reduce communi (...truncated)