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Article
Socio-Demographic and Attitudinal Correlates of Problematic Social Media Use: Analysis of Ithra's 30-Nation Digital Wellbeing Survey
Frontiers in Psychiatry
  • Justin Thomas, Zayed University
  • Marina Verlinden, Zayed University
  • Fahad Al Beyahi
  • Bahiah Al Bassam
  • Yasmin Aljedawi
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-28-2022
Abstract

Time spent on social media continues to rise globally. For some individuals, social media use can become maladaptive and associated with clinically significant social and occupational impairments. This problematic social media use (PSMU) is also linked with poorer health and wellbeing. Much of our existing PSMU knowledge comes from single nation studies, heavily focused on adolescent and college-age samples. This study uses data from Ithra's 2021 global digital wellbeing survey to explore rates of PSMU and identify socio-demographic and attitudinal correlates. Participants (N = 15,000) were representative adult samples (N = 500) drawn from 30 nations. All participants provided socio-demographic data and completed a measure of PSMU, along with questions assessing attitudes toward social media and general usage patterns. PSMU prevalence was 6.82%, varying from 1.7 to 18.4% between nations. Multivariate logistical regression identified several correlates, including national culture, age, parenthood and frequency of use. These findings can help inform public policy and public health initiatives to reduce PSMU prevalence.

Publisher
Frontiers
Keywords
  • Social media use,
  • Social media disorder,
  • Internet addiction,
  • International,
  • National culture
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Indexed in Scopus
No
Open Access
Yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series
Citation Information
Justin Thomas, Marina Verlinden, Fahad Al Beyahi, Bahiah Al Bassam, et al.. "Socio-Demographic and Attitudinal Correlates of Problematic Social Media Use: Analysis of Ithra's 30-Nation Digital Wellbeing Survey" Frontiers in Psychiatry Vol. 13 (2022) p. 850297 - 850297 ISSN: <a href="https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/issn/1664-0640" target="_blank">
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/justin-thomas28211/80/