The mediating role of social media disorder in the relationship between social media use and self-harm behavior in Indonesian adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: Social media use in adolescence has been at an all-time high, along with the constant increase of self-harm behavior. Existing research on the relationship between social media usage and self-harm behavior in adolescent is inconsistent and scarce. We aimed to determine the relationship between adolescent self-harm behavior and social media usage, as well as to explore the mediating role of social media disorder in the relationship between social media use and self-harm behavior in Indonesian adolescents. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the relationship between self-harm behavior and social media use in 1096 adolescents aged 13–18 years old, who attend secondary and high schools in Jakarta. Results: Higher social media usage intensity was significantly correlated with increased instances of self-harm (p < 0.001). Similarly, a significant association was found between social media disorder and self-harm behavior (p < 0.001). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) yielded an acceptable and good fit of latent construct modeling based on several indices. Regression analysis indicated a strong link between social media usage time and social media disorder (β = 0.277, p = 0.035), and between social media disorder and self-harm behavior (β = 0.353, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Social media usage intensity and social media disorder was associated with self-harm behavior in adolescents, with social media disorder partially mediating the link between social media usage intensity and self-harm behavior. Our findings emphasize the importance of monitoring and managing social media use among adolescents to mitigate the risk of self-harm.