Sekaran V C, Vashe A, Alagarraj A, Sheng Y L, Elendran Y, Choudhury S, Gupta S, Bhattacharya M, Ashok L
Department of Global Public Health Policy and Governance, Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
Division of Physiology, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.
Clin Ter. 2025;176(3):336-343. doi: 10.7417/CT.2025.5231.
The pervasiveness of social media has led to a growing cause for concern regarding potential adverse effects that may stem from excessive social media usage, particularly in relation to its psychological effects. The authors in this study investigated problematic social media use and it's predictors among emerging adults in the Indian context.
We employed stratified cluster sampling technique in this cross-sectional study to select a sample of 204 students from government and private institutions. The inclusion criteria was specific to emerging adults aged 18 to 22 years. Tools included a proforma on socio-demographic data, the Social Media Disorder Scale and Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale. We examined the prevalence and predictors of problematic social media use from self-reports of emerging adults.
Prevalence of problematic social media use was measured at 7.8%. There was a negative correlation observed (r = -0.270, p<0.0001) between problematic social media use and self-esteem of the participants. Living in low-income households and signing up on a single social media platform were protective while lower age at initially signing up and and having a felt need for followers on social media networks increased the odds of problematic social media use.
Problematic social media use is inversely correlated with self-esteem of emerging adults. Characteristics of social media usage such as the age at signing up, the number of platforms signed up on and the need for followers significantly predicted problematic social media usage among emerging adults.
社交媒体的普及引发了人们对过度使用社交媒体可能产生的潜在不利影响的日益担忧，尤其是其对心理的影响。本研究的作者调查了印度背景下新兴成年人中存在问题的社交媒体使用情况及其预测因素。
在这项横断面研究中，我们采用分层整群抽样技术，从政府和私立机构中选取了204名学生作为样本。纳入标准特定于18至22岁的新兴成年人。工具包括一份关于社会人口学数据的表格、社交媒体障碍量表和罗森伯格自尊量表。我们通过新兴成年人的自我报告来研究存在问题的社交媒体使用的患病率和预测因素。
存在问题的社交媒体使用患病率为7.8%。参与者存在问题的社交媒体使用与自尊之间存在负相关（r = -0.270，p<0.0001）。生活在低收入家庭和只在一个社交媒体平台注册具有保护作用，而最初注册时年龄较小以及在社交媒体网络上感觉需要粉丝会增加存在问题的社交媒体使用的几率。
存在问题的社交媒体使用与新兴成年人的自尊呈负相关。社交媒体使用的特征，如注册年龄、注册平台数量和对粉丝的需求，显著预测了新兴成年人中存在问题的社交媒体使用情况。
