The association between compulsive social media use and psychological well-being among young adults in Malaysia: Social media fatigue as a mediator

• Main Authors: Foong, Chee Ee, Lau, Yau Chee, Sarvinna, Vasuthevan
• Format: Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HT Communities. Classes. Races
• Online Access: http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4568/1/FYP_PY_FCE_2022.pdf; http://eprints.utar.edu.my/4568/
• Institution: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

There was an increase of 2 million social media users since 2020, and a long period of social media usage led to psychological consequences of depression and low psychological well-being. Compulsive social media use and social media fatigue were reported as factors that lead to poor psychological well-being. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the associations of compulsive social media use, social media fatigue and psychological well-being, and social media fatigue as the mediator in the association between compulsive social media use and psychological well-being. The questionnaires were distributed to 119 Malaysian young adults (M = 22.67, SD = 2.33), respectively 67.2% females and 32.8% males. The result of Pearson correlation analysis depicted a significant negative linkage of compulsive social media use and psychological well-being; significant positive association between compulsive social media use and social media fatigue; significant negative linkage between social media fatigue and psychological well-being. Besides, the PROCESS Macro mediation analysis determined that the mediating role of social media fatigue in the association of compulsive social media use and psychological well-being was not significant. This study is beneficial not only in paving a way for future investigations for this topic in the Malaysian context but also put a light on the consequence of compulsive social media usage so young adults can be more mindful of their social media usage in order to take care of their psychological well-being.