The Effect of College Students’ Mental Health on SNS Addiction—A Path Analysis Using Self-Presentations on SNS as Mediating Variables—

Abstract

[Purpose]

Internet Addiction (IA) is a serious problem for college students who frequently use such communication tools as social networking services (SNS). However, research on types of Internet behaviors related to IA is rare. In the present study, self-presentations on SNS were adopted as mediating variables to examine mental health’s influence on SNS addiction.

[Methods]

College students (N=403) using Twitter, a popular SNS, completed a self-report questionnaire. Collated data was evaluated via path analysis to examine effects of self-esteem, loneliness, and dissociation as mental health indicators for SNS addiction; self-presentations on SNS served as mediating variables.

[Results]

Results from correlation analysis indicated that vain self-presentation on Twitter correlated negatively with mental health indicators. In addition, path analysis results showed that low self-esteem’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by vain self-presentation. In contrast, loneliness indirectly restrained Twitter addiction. Furthermore, although dissociation’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by vain self-presentation, dissociation was also found to promote Twitter addiction directly.

[Discussion/Conclusion]

This study’s findings revealed that mental health’s influence on Twitter addiction was mediated by self-presentation on Twitter, but also had direct effects on Twitter addiction. Future studies must examine individual mental health’s influence on self-presentation on Twitter and Twitter addiction in detail, using a longitudinal method. Additionally, surveys using innovative methods that involve more concrete aspects of Internet behaviors, such as actual activity logs, would be beneficial.