Social Media Self‐Control Failure leading to antisocial aggressive behavior

One of the key challenges in adolescence is to develop the ability for self-control. The current experience sampling method (ESM) study examined whether adolescents who spend more time on social media than their peers are more inclined to fail at this ability (between-person association), whether social media use and self-control failure co-fluctuate within adolescents (within-person association), and whether this within-person association differs from person to person. With a sample of 383 adolescents (Mage = 14.1), who together completed 35,099 ESM surveys (73% compliance), we found both a positive between-person association (β = .31) and a positive within-person association (β = .12) of social media use with self-control failure. However, the within-person association differed from adolescent to adolescent: While social media use was positively associated with self-control failure among most adolescents (52%), it was not associated among a large group (47%), and negatively associated among a very small group (1%). The findings highlight the importance of a person-specific approach in social media and self-control research and open up new directions for future studies.

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The reciprocal relationships between social media self-control failure, mindfulness and wellbeing: A longitudinal study

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0255648 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. e0255648

Author(s):

Jie Du ◽

Peter Kerkhof ◽

Guido M. van Koningsbruggen

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Life Satisfaction ◽

Longitudinal Design ◽

Self Control ◽

Subjective Vitality ◽

Reciprocal Relationships ◽

Reciprocal Influence ◽

Random Intercept ◽

Control Failure ◽

Time Invariant

This paper aims to shed light on the question whether, and how, social media self-control failure is related to mindfulness and wellbeing. Using a 3-wave longitudinal design, the present study among 594 daily social media users examined the reciprocal relationships between social media self-control failure and mindfulness, and between social media self-control failure and wellbeing (as assessed by subjective vitality and life satisfaction). Results of the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model showed that social media self-control failure has a time-invariant negative association with mindfulness and subjective vitality. No full reciprocal influence was found between social media self-control failure and mindfulness, yet part of this trajectory was observed, suggesting that social media self-control failure could impair mindfulness, which, in turn, might increase future social media self-control failure. For wellbeing, life satisfaction was found to predict subsequent drops in social media self-control failure.

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