Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.
RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Psychiatry. 2023 Jul 13;23(1):509. doi: 10.1186/s12888-023-04985-5.
Problematic social media use has been identified as negatively impacting psychological and everyday functioning and has been identified as a possible behavioural addiction (social media addiction; SMA). Whether SMA can be classified as a distinct behavioural addiction has been debated within the literature, with some regarding SMA as a premature pathologisation of ordinary social media use behaviour and suggesting there is little evidence for its use as a category of clinical concern. This study aimed to understand the relationship between proposed symptoms of SMA and psychological distress and examine these over time in a longitudinal network analysis, in order better understand whether SMA warrants classification as a unique pathology unique from general distress.
N = 462 adults (M = 30.8, SD = 9.23, 69.3% males, 29% females, 1.9% other sex or gender) completed measures of social media addiction (Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale), and psychological distress (DASS-21) at two time points, twelve months apart. Data were analysed using network analysis (NA) to explore SMA symptoms and psychological distress. Specifically, NA allows to assess the 'influence' and pathways of influence of each symptom in the network both cross-sectionally at each time point, as well as over time.
SMA symptoms were found to be stable cross-sectionally over time, and were associated with, yet distinct, from, depression, anxiety and stress. The most central symptoms within the network were tolerance and mood-modification in terms of expected influence and closeness respectively. Depression symptoms appeared to have less of a formative effect on SMA symptoms than anxiety and stress.
Our findings support the conceptualisation of SMA as a distinct construct occurring based on an underpinning network cluster of behaviours and a distinct association between SMA symptoms and distress. Further replications of these findings, however, are needed to strengthen the evidence for SMA as a unique behavioural addiction.
有研究指出，有问题的社交媒体使用会对心理和日常功能产生负面影响，并可能被视为一种行为成瘾（社交媒体成瘾；SMA）。SMA 是否可以被归类为一种独特的行为成瘾，在文献中有过争议，一些人认为 SMA 是对普通社交媒体使用行为过早的病理化，并认为将其作为一种临床关注类别使用的证据很少。本研究旨在了解 SMA 的拟议症状与心理困扰之间的关系，并通过纵向网络分析来随时间考察这些关系，以更好地了解 SMA 是否值得被归类为一种独特的病理，与一般困扰不同。
共有 462 名成年人（M=30.8，SD=9.23，69.3%为男性，29%为女性，1.9%为其他性别或性别认同）在相隔 12 个月的两个时间点完成了社交媒体成瘾（卑尔根社交媒体成瘾量表）和心理困扰（DASS-21）的测量。使用网络分析（NA）来分析数据，以探索 SMA 症状和心理困扰。具体来说，NA 可以评估每个症状在网络中的“影响”和影响路径，既可以在每个时间点进行横截面评估，也可以随时间进行评估。
SMA 症状在时间上是稳定的，并且与抑郁、焦虑和压力有关，但又与它们不同。网络中最中心的症状是耐受性和情绪调节，分别在预期影响和接近度方面。与焦虑和压力相比，抑郁症状对 SMA 症状的形成影响较小。
我们的研究结果支持将 SMA 概念化为一种独特的结构，它基于行为的潜在网络群集和 SMA 症状与困扰之间的独特关联。然而，需要进一步的复制研究来加强 SMA 作为一种独特的行为成瘾的证据。
