Examining the Relationships Between Adolescents' Emotion Regulation Levels and Social Media Addiction

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine the relationship between adolescents’ emotional regulation strategies and social media addiction. Methods: 1151 adolescents aged between 14 and 18 participated in the study (Mage = 14.44, SD =4.97). 63.8% of the participants in the study were girls and 36.2% were male. Researchers used the Emotion Regulation Scale and the Social Media Addiction Scale. In the study, we performed correlation analysis to determine the relationships between the variables. We used the structural equation model to test the predictive relationship between emotion regulation on social media addiction. We used SPSS 22, LISREL 9.1 program for statistical analysis. Results: The results show that there are low-level, negative correlations between social media addiction and reappraisal of emotions. Similarly, there are low-level, positively significant relationships between suppression of emotions and social media addiction. Another result of the study reveals that reappraisal and suppression of emotions have a predictive effect on social media addiction. Conclusion: The results show that reappraisal emotions reduce social media addiction, while suppression increases social media addiction.