Relationships between university students' social media use, attachment styles and self-concealment levels

Within the scope of the research, the relationships between fake account use, attachment styles, and self-concealment behaviors of university students were examined. Within the scope of the study, a personal information form, Self-concealment Scale, and Three-Dimensional Attachment Style Scale were used to collect data. The study group consisted of 598 university students studying in 2023-2024. Correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, and independent sample T-test methods were applied in the analysis of the data. According to the findings, the self-concealment scores of university students using fake accounts were significantly higher than those who did not. In addition, a relationship was found between anxious-ambivalent and avoidant attachment styles in fake account use. Accordingly, those who use fake accounts have higher anxious-ambivalent and avoidant attachment levels. There are no significant differences in self-concealment and anxious-ambivalent attachment levels according to gender. However; fake account use shows significant differences in terms of secure attachment and avoidant attachment styles according to gender. While secure attachment levels of women are higher than men, avoidant attachment levels of men are higher than women. Finally, self-concealment has a positive relationship with avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis show that the only factor predicting the self-concealment behavior of individuals using fake accounts is the anxious-ambivalent attachment style.