What Explains the Association between Usage of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and Depression Symptoms? The Mediating Roles of Self-Esteem and Fear of Missing Out

Angel Nga Man Leung, Wilbert Law, Yvonne Yiqing Liang, Antony Chun Lam Au, Cheng Li and Henry Kin Shing Ng
Additional contact information
Angel Nga Man Leung: Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Wilbert Law: Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Yvonne Yiqing Liang: Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Antony Chun Lam Au: Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Cheng Li: Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Henry Kin Shing Ng: Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: The goal of the study was to understand the mechanisms of how social networking sites (SNS) usage is related to depression symptoms, as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CESD). Three studies were conducted to examine the mediation roles of self-esteem and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). In Study 1, among 347 Chinese college students, time spent on SNS was negatively associated with self-esteem; while self-esteem then negatively associated with depression symptoms. In Study 2, among 180 Chinese college students, time spent on SNS was positively related to FoMO; while FoMO then positively related to depression symptoms. In Study 3, among 233 Chinese university students, both self-esteem and FoMO were simultaneously included in the mediation model to test their respective roles in explaining depression symptoms. Results showed that more time spent on SNS was related to lower self-esteem, and higher FoMO, respectively; while self-esteem then negatively, and FoMO then positively, explained depression symptoms, respectively. In addition, when participants spent 3.5 h (Study 1), 2.5 h (Study 2), and 2.54 h (Study 3) on SNS, they reached the cutoff for subthreshold depression, as measured by CESD. Combining results from three studies, both self-esteem and FoMO mediated the relation between SNS usage and depression symptoms. This study provides implications to understand the mechanism of SNS-related depression.

Keywords: social media; fear of missing out; self-esteem; depression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/3916/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/3916/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:8:p:3916-:d:532355

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().