The Relationship between Family and Social Media

Abstract

In the last few decades, social media has become a vital component of life for adolescents all over the world. As social media has gradually preoccupied the majority of the time of adolescents' daily life, leading to concerns about the negative consequences such as academic achievement, social connection, sleep quality and mental health. Family has been identified as the primary and foremost component, among others, that has a strong link to social integration and social media addiction. This review aims to discuss the association between family and adolescents' social media addiction, which will focus on three causative family-related factors: parenting style, family relationships, and the socioeconomic status of the family. Specifically, the communication between parents and adolescents are important in their developmental history, and coping strategies and prevention of addictive behaviour. In addition, dysfunctional family has a close relationship with social media addiction. For parents, healthcare providers, and intervention developers, it is necessary to consider family factors in order to support adolescents' health and development. The discussion part of the literature still has the limitation of addressing possible strategies and pathways for families to support adolescents' health and development.