The mediating and buffering effect of resilience on the relationship between loneliness and social media addiction among adolescent

Abstract

Social media addiction has many negative effects on the mental health of adolescents. In addition, adolescence is among the high-risk groups in terms of social media addiction. Loneliness is an important variable in the emergence of social media addiction in adolescents. In addition, loneliness is considered a risk factor for adolescents' psychological resilience. Although there is a significant relationship between psychological resilience and technology addictions, there is no research examining the mediating role of psychological resilience between loneliness and social media addiction in adolescents. This study aimed to examine the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between loneliness and social media addiction in adolescents. The study was conducted with 786 adolescents aged 11 to 18, including 474 girls (60.3%) and 312 (39.7%) boys. The data of the study were collected using the Social Media Addiction Scale, the UCLA-Loneliness Short Form, and the Psychological Resilience Scale. The mediation analysis results showed that psychological resilience had a partial mediator role in the relationship between loneliness and social media addiction. These results obtained in the study provide important evidence for the potential buffering role of psychological resilience in reducing social media addiction in adolescents with high levels of loneliness. An overall evaluation of the results indicates that psychological resilience interventions for adolescents with high levels of loneliness could reduce their social media addiction and affect their mental health positively.