Social media use for emotion regulation: A conceptual replication and extension.

Abstract

Studies on emotion regulation (ER) have shown that people use various tools to shape their affective states. The present study used experience sampling method (ESM) to examine the impact of social media use on depressive symptoms and momentary negative affect among Japanese adults. Participants (Sample 1: 54 participants; Sample 2: 56 participants) reported social media use for ER and related psychological variables, five times each day for 7 consecutive days. We conducted identical surveys for Samples 1 and 2 to check for robustness of results; the present study was conducted in 2023. Results of multilevel analyses (lagged analyses) showed that most emotion regulatory social media uses were not significantly associated with depressive symptoms nor negative affect, suggesting that benefits of social media use may be scarce. However, cross-sectional analyses showed that few types of social media ER were associated with shifts toward desired emotional states. Considering that similar findings were reported in previous studies, these findings may suggest that effects of social media ER may be immediate or short-term across culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)