Abstract
Background: With a growing number of users, social networking sites have been the subject of numerous recent studies, but little investigation has been given to their problematic use. Objectives: Our main objective was to study the relationship between psychopathological variables (i.e., personality traits, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and stress) and problematic Facebook and Twitter use. Participants and method: A sample of 1068 Internet users (Mage = 26.64; SD = 9.5) has been recruited online. Participants completed scales exploring problematic Facebook and Twitter use, and psychopathological variables. Results: Problematic Facebook and Twitter use were predicted by different pathological personality traits, regrouped in clusters in our study. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were also predictive of problematic Facebook and Twitter use but only stress explained problematic Facebook use. Gender differences have been observed. Discussion: This study highlights the relationship between depression, anxiety, stress, pathological personality traits, and problematic Facebook and Twitter use. Significant differences have been retrieved between these two uses and their relationship to psychopathology. Future research should also explore the causal relationship between social networking sites use and psychopathology and consider gender.
Highlights
Facebook and Twitter are among the most popular Social Networking Sites (SNS) worldwide [1].All SNS facilitate social interactions, even if they do not have the same finalities
Our objectives were to explore the relationship between Problematic Facebook Use (PFU), Problematic Twitter Use (PTU), and psychopathological variables
This study confirmed the relationship between PFU and psychopathological variables and brings new data about PTU
Summary
Facebook and Twitter are among the most popular Social Networking Sites (SNS) worldwide [1]. All SNS facilitate social interactions, even if they do not have the same finalities. Twitter is more about sharing information and opinions [2] than about developing social interactions like Facebook [3]. Twitter restores anonymity sought initially through SNS [3] and seems more focused on what users say than on what they are or look like. Several researches highlight the existence of addictive-like symptoms related to SNS use [4,5]. The use of some SNS has been described as pathological, problematic, or even addictive. With a growing number of users, social networking sites have been the subject of numerous recent studies, but little investigation has been given to their problematic use
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