The relationship between rumination and social media use in patients diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Objective: This study aimed to examine, through a multidimensional approach, the relationships between symptom severity of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), levels of positive and negative rumination, social media use habits, and social media addiction in individuals diagnosed with OCD. Method: The study included a total of 220 participants, consisting of 112 individuals diagnosed with OCD and 108 healthy controls. Participants were administered a Sociodemographic Data Form, the Positive and Negative Rumination Scale (PANRS), the Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS), and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (B-SMAS). Additionally, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), an OCD Data Form, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Disorders – Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV) were applied to the OCD group. OCD diagnoses were confirmed via SCID-5-CV, and comorbid psychiatric conditions were excluded. Scale scores and correlations were analyzed statistically. Results: The OCD group scored significantly higher than the control group on the Social Media Addiction Scale, the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, and the negative rumination subscale, while scoring significantly lower on the positive rumination subscale (all p < 0.001). Social media addiction scores were positively correlated with both negative rumination and Y-BOCS scores, and negatively correlated with positive rumination scores (all p < 0.001). Although social media addiction scores differed across obsession and compulsion subtypes, these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Mediation analyses indicated that negative rumination partially mediated the relationship between OCD symptom severity and social media addiction, whereas no significant mediating effect was found for positive rumination. Conclusion: In individuals diagnosed with OCD, scores on the social media addiction scale are higher than those in the control group. These scores are associated with both the severity of the disorder and with both the positive and negative dimensions of rumination. The finding that negative rumination subscale scores are significantly and positively correlated with both OCD symptom severity and social media addiction in individuals with OCD suggests that negative rumination may play a key role in the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and problematic social media use. Keywords: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Social Media Addiction, Positive Rumination, Negative Rumination