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Abdul Karim, Adri Khalis Bin

University of British Columbia

Social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook (IG/FB), are central to communication and relationship development among emerging adults. This phenomenon raises concerns regarding how the use of this technology might be related to the psychopathology of those who use it. Existing longitudinal work has largely focused on how social media predicts psychopathology, with less attention on how psychopathology might also predict the way we engage with social media. Further, we know little about whether the type of psychopathology (e.g., internalizing versus attention/deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms), or the type of social media use (e.g., quantity, behaviours, and quality) matter for these associations. Using a short-term longitudinal design, the current study investigated the bidirectional associations between dimensions of IG/FB use and aspects of psychopathology (internalizing symptoms and ADHD symptoms) in a sample of 399 emerging adult users of IG/FB with elevations in psychopathology symptoms and perceived their social media use to have some negative impact on their lives. I also investigated the potential role that quality and quantity of IG/FB use might play in mediating associations between internalizing psychopathology and ADHD symptoms. Self-reported psychopathology and IG/FB use were assessed every 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks. Similarly, participants’ IG/FB pages were observationally coded every 2 weeks for a total of 6 weeks. Findings indicated that higher quantity of IG/FB use predicted more internalizing symptoms 2 weeks later. Higher quality IG/FB use also predicted subsequent increases in both internalizing psychopathology and ADHD symptoms. More internalizing symptoms at a previous timepoint was associated with greater engagement in upward social comparisons at subsequent timepoints. I found that higher internalizing psychopathology was bidirectionally associated with increased engagement in social comparisons, and vice-versa. Neither quantity nor quality of IG/FB use mediated associations between internalizing psychopathology and ADHD symptoms. I note that my findings may not generalize to individuals who are not elevated in psychopathology symptoms or do not perceive their IG/FB use to have a negative impact on their lives and may not speak to experiences on other social media.

Text

2023-08-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85689

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/