Abstract
This study aimed to determine the relationships between social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts, psychological well-being and social media addiction and the predictive power of these variables on social media addiction. The sample of the study consists of 440 associate degrees, undergraduate and postgraduate students studying in various universities in Turkey. Demographic Information Form, Social Media Addiction Scale, Automatic Thoughts Scale and Psychological Well-being Scale were used as data collection tools in the study. Independent group t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical regression analysis methods were used for the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there was a positive correlation between social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts and social media addiction and a negative correlation between social media addiction and psychological well-being. According to the analysis, it was concluded that automatic thoughts and social appearance anxiety significantly predicted social media addiction, while psychological well-being did not significantly contribute to the model. Findings were discussed in light of the relevant literature.
Highlights
The internet, which is a modern way of obtaining information and communicating with others, has become an increasingly important element of human life (Odacı & Kalkan, 2010)
The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts and psychological well-being, which are thought to affect university students’ social media addiction
It was seen that social media addiction and social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts and psychological well-being variables were all correlated with each other
Summary
The internet, which is a modern way of obtaining information and communicating with others, has become an increasingly important element of human life (Odacı & Kalkan, 2010). There is a lot of research that the increased use of technology such as the internet, social media and smartphones, which can cause addiction in daily life, is a risk factor for depression These studies show that these types of addiction are positively associated with depression (Glazzard & Stones, 2019; Keles, McCrae, & Grealish, 2019; Woods & Scott, 2016). In the study conducted by Ayar, Gerçeker, Özdemir, and Bektaş (2018), a positive and significant relationship was found between nomophobia levels, problematic internet use, social media addiction level and social appearance anxiety. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts and psychological well-being, which are thought to affect university students’ social media addiction. There is a gap in the literature on examining the relationship between social appearance anxiety, automatic thoughts and psychological well-being and social media addiction from a holistic perspective. 2) Is there a significant difference in terms of social media addiction among demographic variables such as gender, age, relationship status in university students?
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