The mediator role of social support perception in the relationship between social media addiction and psychological well-being: A study on university students

Social media, the use of which has increased with the development of technology, has turned into addiction. The increase in the level of social media addiction resulted in a low perception of well-being and social support. In this context, it is important to examine the relationship between social media addiction and psychological well-being and to determine the role of social support perception in this relationship. This study aimed to examine the variables of social media addiction, psychological well-being and perception of social support of university students according to demographic characteristics, the relationship between social media addiction and well-being and the mediating role of social support perception sub-dimensions in this relationship. The universe of the research consists of university students. The sample consists of 562 students, 412 of whom are female and 150 are male. In the research, "Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale", "Three Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support" and "Psychological Well-Being Scale" were used as measurement tools. In the analysis of data; t test, variance, correlation and mediation analyzes were used, and .05 significance level was taken as basis in the evaluation of the findings. In the study, while addiction and friend support differed according to gender, no difference was observed in well-being, family and personal support. Addiction was found meaningless according to the device accessed to social media. According to the use of social media, it was found to be significant in terms of the year and time of use. While social media addiction and perception of social support were found to be insignificant according to educational status and monthly income of the family, well-being gave significant results. The perception of social support was found to be meaningless according to the place where most of the life was spent and the place of residence during the education. While the relationship between well-being and addiction and perception of social support was significant, the relationship between addiction and perception of social support was not. In addition, it was seen that only family support mediated the relationship between social media addiction and well-being. Researchers are recommended to identify other variables that affect this model presented in future studies. KEYWORDS: Social Media Addiction, Psychological Well-Being, Perception of Social Support