Emotion regulation and social media addiction: Investigating the role of basic psychological need experiences

In the present research, social media addiction was investigated together with two potential underlying psychological factors: emotion regulation and basic psychological need experiences. The aim of the research was to examine the mediating role of experiences of need frustration in the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and social media addiction. Volunteered 320 university students between the ages of 18-25 (M = 19.66, SD = 1.45) who use social media participated in the research via online forms. The Demographic Information Form, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Brief Form, Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, and Social Media Addiction Scale were used to collect data. Results indicated that emotion regulation difficulties were positively linked to social media addiction. Experiences of need frustration partially mediated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and social media addiction. In the behavioral addiction context, the present research provided additional information to the literature regarding underlying psychological factors of social media addiction. The findings imply the importance of emotion regulation and basic psychological needs in the prevention and treatment of social media addiction.