Associations Between Young Adults' Social Media Addiction, Relationship Quality With Parents, and Internalizing Problems: A Path Analysis Model

The pervasiveness of social media in the lives of young adults raises concerns about the potential of problematic use. Social media addiction is likely to affect positive and negative aspects of the relationships quality with mothers and fathers but mechanisms explaining these associations remain unknown. Participants in this study (N = 435; M (age) = 19.17; SD = 0.30) completed the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale and reported their symptoms of anxiety, depression, and the quality of the relationship with mothers and fathers (i.e., conflict, satisfaction, equality). Considering important confounding variables, results of a path analysis model show that the level of social media addiction is related to high conflict, low satisfaction and low equality with father, and high conflict and low equality with mother. Moreover, social media addiction is positively linked to symptoms of anxiety and depression. Finally, anxiety and depression mediate the links between social media addiction and conflict, satisfaction and equality with the mother, and conflict and satisfaction with the father. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying the associations between social media addiction and the relationship with parents in young adults. Theoretical explanations and practical implications are proposed in discussion. Future research should use a longitudinal design to support this mediating effect. Public Significance Statement Young adults with social media addiction symptoms are more likely to have poorer relationship quality with parents and to exhibit symptoms of anxiety and depression. The results of our study should encourage professionals, schools and families to be attentive to the problematic use of social media as they can have negative impacts on both the psychological health and interpersonal relationships of young adults.