Exploring the role of social media use motives, psychological well-being, self-esteem, and affect in problematic social media use

Given recent advances in technology, connectivity, and the popularity of social mediaplatforms, recent literature has devoted great attention to problematic Facebookuse. However, exploring the potential predictors of problematic social media usebeyond Facebook use has become paramount given the increasing popularity ofmultiple alternative platforms. In this study, a sample of 584 social media users(Mage = 32.28 years; 67.81% female) was recruited to complete an online surveyassessing sociodemographic characteristics, patterns, and preferences of social mediause, problematic social media use (PSMU), social media use motives, psychologicalwell-being, self-esteem, and positive and negative affect. Results indicated that 6.68%(n = 39) of all respondents could be potentially classed as problematic users. Moreover,further analysis indicated that intrapersonal motive (β = 0.38), negative affect (β = 0.22),daily social media use (β = 0.18), surveillance motive (β = 0.12), and positive affect(β = −0.09) each predicted PSMU. These variables accounted for about 37% of the totalvariance in PSMU, with intrapersonal motive driving the greatest predictive contribution,over and above the effects of patterns of social media use and sociodemographicvariables. These findings contribute to the increasing literature on PSMU. The resultsof this study are discussed in light of the existing literature on PSMU