Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample.

Fanni Bányai,Orsolya Király,Ágnes Zsila,Aniko Maraz,Zsolt Demetrovics,Mark D Griffiths,Cecilie Schou Andreassen,Zsuzsanna Elekes,Susana Jiménez-Murcia

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169839

Abstract

Despite social media use being one of the most popular activities among adolescents, prevalence estimates among teenage samples of social media (problematic) use are lacking in the field. The present study surveyed a nationally representative Hungarian sample comprising 5,961 adolescents as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and based on latent profile analysis, 4.5% of the adolescents belonged to the at-risk group, and reported low self-esteem, high level of depression symptoms, and elevated social media use. Results also demonstrated that BSMAS has appropriate psychometric properties. It is concluded that adolescents at-risk of problematic social media use should be targeted by school-based prevention and intervention programs.

Highlights

Social media use Social media use is currently one of the most popular leisure activities among adolescents (e.g., [1,2,3])
The analysis provided an acceptable fit to the data (χ2 = 5836.190 df = 15 p< 0.001; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.950; Tukey-Lewis Fit Index (TLI) = 0.917; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.073 (0.066–0.080) Cfit>0.90; SRMR = 0.034)
Using a latent profile analysis on the six items of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), the adolescent social media users were divided into three different classes, and the analysis demonstrated that 4.5% of participants could be classified as being at-risk

Summary

Introduction

Social media use Social media use is currently one of the most popular leisure activities among adolescents (e.g., [1,2,3]). Social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) host virtual communities where users can create individual public and/or private profiles [4,5,6]. Users can access social media on different platforms (mobile or computer devices), for different activities (e.g., interacting with real-life friends, meeting others based on shared interest, chatting, mailing, sharing or creating pictures / videos, blogging, dating, playing games, gambling; [7,8,9]). Facebook is one of the most popular social media among 13–17 years old adolescents in the USA [2]. According to a recent report, 71% of teenage social media users access more than one social media and 24% of adolescents are “almost constantly” online due to the widespread use and popularity of smartphones [2]. There is an increasing interest to explore and assess the characteristics and prevalence of problematic/excessive use of social media (e.g., [4, 10,11,12,13,14])

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion