The Relations Among Social Media Addiction, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction in University Students

TLDR

Social media use has expanded rapidly, reaching nearly one‑third of the global population and growing at about 10% per year, prompting research into its effects on users’ lives. This study investigates how addictive social‑media use relates to self‑esteem and life satisfaction among university students. Researchers administered an online survey comprising the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire, Rosenberg’s Self‑Esteem Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and analyzed the data with Pearson correlations, regression, and structural equation modeling. The SMAQ exhibited a robust one‑factor structure and high reliability; addictive use was negatively linked to self‑esteem, which in turn positively predicted life satisfaction, with self‑esteem mediating the addiction–satisfaction relationship.

Abstract

The use of social media has grown exponentially to the extent of engaging close to one third of the world’s population as of January 2016. Actually, social media statistics have been reporting an average annual increase of 10% in total number of users. These extremely impressive statistics have been triggering researchers’ interest in investigating this phenomenon and its impact on every aspect of users’ lives. Our study is an attempt to contribute to the knowledge that is building up in relation to this phenomenon by examining the relationships between the addictive use of social media, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life. To achieve this purpose, a generic questionnaire, the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire (SMAQ), was used stemming from the Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire. Respondents completed an online survey questionnaire which collected demographic information and responses to SMAQ, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. In addition to assessing SMAQ’s psychometric properties, data analyses included Pearson correlations between the variables, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Results showed that a one-factor model of SMAQ had good psychometric properties and had high internal consistency. As for relations, addictive use of social media had a negative association with self-esteem, and the latter had a positive association with satisfaction with life. Furthermore, path analysis showed that self-esteem mediated the effect of social media addiction on satisfaction with life.