Current Psychology

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01174-5

The roles of adolescents’ emotional problems and social media

addiction on their self-esteem
Ibrahim H. Acar 1 & Gökçen Avcılar 1 & Gözde Yazıcı 1 & Selen Bostancı 2

Accepted: 5 November 2020

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
Adolescents’ emotional problems and excessive social media use could deteriorate their self-esteem. The aim of the present study
was to investigate the contributions of adolescents’ emotional problems and social media addiction to their self-esteem, with the
particular interest of testing the mediating role of the social media addiction on the association between emotional problems and
self-esteem. Participants were 221 adolescents (49.3% female) aging from 13 to 17 years (M = 15.86, SD = 0.91). Participants
reported on their emotional problems, social media addiction, and self-esteem. Results from regression analyses showed that the
higher levels of emotional problems and social media addiction were related to lower levels of self-esteem. In addition, social
media addiction partiality mediated the association between emotional problems and self-esteem indicating that the adolescents
with higher levels of emotional problems tended to report higher levels of social media addiction and, in turn this tendency was
related to lower levels of self-esteem.

Keywords Emotional problems . Social media addiction . Adolescent . Self-esteem . Excessive social media use

Introduction about oneself occur through interactions with others (Leavitt

Self-esteem is considered as one of the important behavioral
aspects of functioning in daily life. It is defined as the way of
how people perceive their worthiness or simply having a fa-
vorable or unfavorable opinion about the self (Minev et al.,
2018). Individual characteristics, social environment, and so-
ciety play a substantial role in the formation of the self-esteem
since one way to evaluate oneself and develop an opinion
* Ibrahim H. Acar
ibrahim.acar@ozyegin.edu.tr
Gökçen Avcılar
gokcen.avcilar@ozu.edu.tr
Gözde Yazıcı
gozde.yazici@ozu.edu.tr
Selen Bostancı
selen.bostanci@ozu.edu.tr
1
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Özyeğin
University, Cekmekoy Kampusu, 34794 Cekmekoy, Istanbul,
Turkey
2 emotional problems among adolescents such as feeling lonely
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Işık
University, Maslak Kampusu, Büyükdere Caddesi No: 194,
34398 Maslak, İstanbul, Turkey
et al., 2015; Rosenberg, 1965). In general, females have been
found to be displaying lower levels of self-esteem than males
do (Kling et al., 1999). In addition, individuals’ self-esteem
differs depending on socioeconomic background; higher SES
individuals report higher levels of self-esteem, albeit the effect
sizes for this difference have been small (Twenge &
Campbell, 2002). Self-esteem may play an important role in
self-evaluating during adolescence as individuals begin estab-
lishing their identity construction and reflection of the self by
others and themselves (Chen, 2019; Owens, 1994). Further, in
this perception of worthiness, there may be a reciprocity be-
tween emotionality and self-esteem (Leary & Baumeister,
2000; Rosenberg et al., 1989), indicating emotional problems
could undermine the self-esteem. A decent number of previ-
ous studies have concluded that the evaluation of the self in
terms of low worthiness plays a role in several emotional
problems in adolescents (Emler, 2001) such as, depression
(Heine et al., 1999) and feeling alone (Rosenberg & Owens,
2001). As a consequence of having emotional problems, peo-
ple may embark on a quest of finding ways to express them-
selves, communicate with others or just spend their time let-
ting themselves go, so they may feel better. For instance,
may lead them to spend too much time on social media as a
need for social interaction or to find a better way for the self-

reflection. With the advancement of technology, several social
media platforms have been created such as Facebook and
Instagram as a tool for communication or spending leisure
time. However, spending excessive time on social media
could be addictive. This addiction could undermine adoles-
cents’ self-esteem by ameliorating their self-image by relying
on using social media are likely to confront the deteriorated
self-esteem and life satisfaction (Hawi & Samaha, 2017).
Emotional Problems and Self-Esteem in Adolescents
One of the significant issues that has been drawing attention of
the experts in the fields of health and education is the emo-
tional wellbeing of adolescents (Wadman et al., 2011). The
reason behind those concerns of experts might be based on the
nature of the adolescence period. Approximately 10–20% of
children and adolescents suffer from mental disorders (Kieling
et al., 2011). Emotional problems in adolescence could be
defined as a set of internalizing symptoms such as rapid and
unexpected changes in emotional outbursts and mood
(Kessler et al., 2007), which are also reflected in depressive
symptoms aligned with emotional problems (Shavers, 2014).
Depression is one of the main mental health problems which
has a high prevalence rate among adolescents (Lopez et al.,
2006). Previous research conducted with adolescents in
Turkey (Yurdagül et al., 2019) and in other countries
(Schraedley et al., 1999; Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2018)
have shown that females display higher emotional problems
such as depression, anxiety, and distress than do males.
There are different models aiming to examine the link be-
tween emotional problems such as depression and self-es-
teem. The vulnerability model is one of those models
explaining this association (Kircaburun, 2016) which suggests
that adolescents’ self-esteem and emotional problems have
been found to be bidirectionally related (Ethier et al., 2006;
Orth et al., 2008).
Because adolescence is a period where multiple changes
occur in an individual’s life such as alteration of their percep-
tion towards their environment which encompass family, cul-
ture and their personality (White and Renk, 2012), the conse-
quences of this emotionally loaded period may lead individ-
uals to develop several emotional problems such as depression
(Desjardins, & Leadbeater, 2011). For example, adolescents
who are disposed to depression might experience problems
with their social life, self-esteem, and sense of well-being
(Derdikman-Eiron et al., 2011). Overall, the evidence is clear
that the emotional problems such as depression is significantly
related to self-esteem, particularly in adolescents (Babore
et al., 2016).
The evidence laid out in this section promises that investi-
gating the link between emotional problems and self-esteem
in adolescents could provide a scientific ground for future
intervention programs. In line with the preceding statement,
Curr Psychol
we aimed to investigate the association between Turkish ado-
lescents’ (i.e., high school students) emotional problems and
self-esteem in the current study.
Emotional Problems and Social Media Addiction in
Adolescents
Advancements in social media platforms and adaptation of
young people to utilizing social media as a way of communi-
cation lead them to excessive use of it in Turkey as well as in
other countries (Statista, 2019; We Are Social, 2020). Social
media addiction could be defined as an excessive usage of
social media sites which reveals the symptoms of other behav-
ioral addictions (Hawi & Samaha, 2017). A total of 15.6% of
the total population consist of young people aging between 15
and 24 years in Turkey (Turkish Statistical Institute [TSI],
2020). Similar to the young population in other countries, in
Turkey, the internet has a huge impact on the life of adoles-
cents who are in an attempt to gain some of the skills that are
going help them in life; under the favor of the easy access to
information besides, procure social connection (Gunuc &
Dogan, 2013).
The theoretical and empirical conceptualizations
portraying the associations between mental health concerns
including emotional problems and social media use of adoles-
cents have been captured from two perspectives reflecting
“rich get richer” phenomenon (Kraut et al., 2002, p.58).
First, adolescents who are emotionally capable of using inter-
net as ways of communicating and connecting with peers and
others would benefit from this usage. However, second, ado-
lescents who are emotionally incapable and with lack of social
support could be negatively affected from the excessive inter-
net use as a way of communication (Kraut et al., 2002).
Further, adolescents may use the social media platforms to
get connected with other people, to fulfill their social status
as the Social Compensation Theory (Valkenburg et al., 2006)
has suggested (Longobardi et al., 2020). “Digital status seek-
ing” is another term that is used to describe behaviors that
focus on enhancing the position on the social media (Nesi
et al., 2018). Moreover, due to the biological improvements
in an adolescents’ brain such as developing executive func-
tioning due to the pruning and myelination (Longobardi et al.,
2020); “digital status seeking” is prone to create susceptibility
in terms of rewarding system (Luciana, 2013).
Using the aforementioned theoretical perspectives, McCrae
et al. (2017) examined the 11 studies representing 12,646
children and adolescents found a significant correlation be-
tween excessive social media use and depressive symptoms
(albeit small effect sizes). In line with this finding, apart from
depression, anxiety is another mental health problem in ado-
lescents which has been found to be linked to social media
use, indicating presence of the association between anxiety
and social media use (Wood et al., 2016). In addition, another
Curr Psychol
study conducted with university students demonstrated that
students who were socially anxious tended to use the
Internet to control their anxiety (Shepherd & Edelmann,
2005). Adolescents with emotional problems may likely to
use the Internet and screen media in an extreme way and
yet; their emotional symptoms are prone to deteriorate due
to their overuse (Caplan, 2003; Houghton et al., 2018).
It is worth acknowledging that the link between emotional
problems and social media use could be bidirectional, such
that excessive social media use could also increase emotional
problems (Kırcaburun et al., 2019). For example, in one study
conducted with Turkish adolescents (14 to 19 years old), re-
searchers found that adolescents who had higher levels of
problematic Instagram use showed higher levels of loneliness,
general anxiety, and social anxiety (Yurdagül et al., 2019). In
addition, Viner et al. (2019) found that the link between ex-
cessive social media use and mental health problems would
come from the notion that combinations of experiences such
as cyberbullying, sleep deprivation, lack of physical activity
which led adolescents to use excessive social media, in return
affected their mental health. From this point of view, one
should consider bidirectionality between emotional problems
and excessive social media use when there is no causal exam-
ination in between two constructs.
Social Media Addiction and Self-Esteem in
Adolescents
Social media platforms enable individuals to make social
comparisons with others and that comparison might create
detrimental effects on the self-esteem of individuals (Vogel
et al., 2014). This comparison within the framework of self-
esteem could be explained from two perspectives. First, up-
ward social comparison refers to “comparing oneself with
superior others who have positive characteristics”. Second,
downward social comparison refers to “comparing oneself
with inferior others who have negative characteristics”
(Vogel et al., 2014, p. 206). From these two perspectives, both
upward and downward social comparisons found to be nega-
tively associated with one’s self-esteem, with the effect of
upward comparison being more compelling (Vogel et al.,
2014). Further, there is an imprescriptible cycle between so-
cial media use and self-esteem of adolescents in where exces-
sive social media use triggers social comparison of individ-
uals, and this comparison will lead to vitiation in self-esteem
(Bergagna & Tartaglia, 2018; Schufreider, 2015). One study
which was conducted with 23,532 Norvegian individuals
from a broad range of age groups found a negative association
between extreme usage of social media and their evaluations
of the self-esteem (Andreassen et al., 2017). Overall, it is clear
that excessive social media use as an indication of addiction
could be a pernicious effect for adolescents’ self-esteem,
which paves the way for further investigation.
Mediation Process: Bringing all Together
Emotional problems as prevalent mental health concerns
could also lead adolescents to engage and sustain excessive
use of social media as a medium of communication; and in
turn, the excessive use may wreak havoc on self-esteem of
adolescents (Fabris et al., 2020; Viner et al., 2019). In the light
of the studies mentioned in earlier sections, emotional prob-
lems create a vulnerability in individuals in many aspects,
particularly during the adolescence period in which formation
of self-esteem is still in progress. Moreover, the symptoms of
those emotional problems could lead adolescents to rely on
excessive social media use, in turn, be concluded as lower
self-esteem. Individuals who are prone to develop mental
health problems and emotional symptoms, adolescents in par-
ticular, use social media in order to satisfy the need of loneli-
ness and to regulate their anxiety (Fabris et al., 2020; Caplan,
2006). In addition, from the perspective of the Self
Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), adoles-
cents could utilize social media as compensation tool to so-
cialize or for psychological needs (Oberst et al., 2017). Yet,
social media comprises a basis for social comparisons among
individuals; individuals who have emotional problems would
be more vulnerable to those upward comparisons (Vogel
et al., 2014), which may lead to have lower self-esteem when
it is compared with their peers who do not display emotional
problems. Overall, experiencing emotional problems may
lead adolescents to excessive usage of social media, which
in turn, could be detrimental for their self-esteem.
The Present Study
In recent years, although there has been an increasing number
of research examining the associations among mental health
problems, excessive social media use, and self-esteem of ad-
olescents in Western world (Andreassen et al., 2017; Viner
et al., 2019; Vogel et al., 2014); the clear link between those
constructs are far from being completely unrevealed in
Turkish context as a non-Western context (see Kircaburun,
2016; Kırcaburun et al., 2019; Yurdagül et al., 2019 for ex-
ception). Considering this paucity, the purpose of the present
study was to investigate associations between Turkish adoles-
cents’ (i.e., high school students) emotional problems, social
media addiction, and their self-esteem, with the particular in-
terest of examining the mediating role of social media addic-
tion between emotional problems and self-esteem. We hy-
pothesized that adolescents with higher levels of emotional
problems and social media addiction would have lower levels
of self-esteem. In addition, higher levels of emotional prob-
lems could lead adolescents to have increasing social media
addiction, which in turn could diminish their self-esteem.

Methods
Participants
We recruited 221 adolescents (aka high school students)
(49.3% female) from three schools in different regions of the
Istanbul, Turkey for the present study. Adolescents’ age
ranged from 13 to 17 years (M = 15.86, SD = 0.91). A total
of 30.5% of adolescents were from ninth, 38.6% were from
tenth, and 30.9% were from eleventh grade. Participants re-
ported that 88.6% of mothers and 80.9% of fathers had high
school and below degrees. We created composite parent edu-
cation variable by averaging standardized (i.e., z-score) moth-
er and father education levels.
Measures
Self-Esteem We used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
(Rosenberg, 1965) to assess adolescents’ self-esteem. The
scale has been used and validated within Turkish samples
including high school students (Balat & Akman, 2004;
Çuhadaroğlu, 1986; Tukuş, 2010). Adolescents’ reported on
10 items on 4-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree
and 4 = strongly agree). There are two subscales: the positive
self-esteem (example item; “On the whole, I am satisfied with
myself”) and negative self-esteem (example item; “I wish I
could have more respect for myself”). Internal consistency
was α = .74 for positive self-esteem and α = .76 for negative
self-esteem. As a common application in previous research
(Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Cai et al.,
2007), we reverse-coded negative self-esteem items and cre-
ated composite self-esteem score (α = .83) by averaging pos-
itive self-esteem items and reverse-coded negative self-esteem
items where higher scores indicated higher levels of self-
esteem.
Emotional Problems We used the Emotional Symptoms sub-
scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ:
Goodman, 1997) to assess adolescents’ emotional prob-
lems. The SDQ has been used and validated with Turkish
sample (Acar, Ucus, & Yildiz, 2019; Güvenir et al., 2008).
Adolescents reported on 5 items on 3-point Likert-type
scale (0 = not true, 2 = certainly true). Example item for
emotional symptoms is “I am often unhappy, depressed or
tearful”. Internal consistency was α = .70 for the current
study. We summed all items to create composite emotional
problems variable where higher scores indicated higher
values of emotional problems.
Social Media Addiction We used the Social Media Addiction
Scale (SMAC: Şahin, 2018) to assess adolescents’ addiction
to social media. The SMAC has been developed and used with
Turkish adolescents and adults (Şahin, 2017, 2018). The
Curr Psychol
SMAC has four subscales: virtual tolerance (α = .78, sample
item; “A life without social media becomes meaningless for
me”), virtual communication (α = .72, sample item; “I ex-
press myself better to the people with whom I get in contact
on social media”), virtual problem (α = .79, sample item; “I
pass over my homework because I spend much time on social
media”, and virtual information (α = .77, sample item; “I am
always active on social media to be instantly informed about
what my kith and kin share”). Adolescents reported on 29
items on 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = not appropriate to 5 =
quite appropriate). Şahin (2018) recommended that the scale
could be used as a total score where higher scores indicate
higher levels of social media addiction. Considering this rec-
ommendation and internal consistency (α = .90) for all items,
we created a composite social media addiction score by aver-
aging all the items.
Data Collection Procedures
We received permission from the Ethics Committee of the
University as a first step. Following this step, we contacted
school administrations to ask for their permission. After get-
ting the permission from school administrations, we sent con-
sent forms and information sheet about the study to parents of
high school students. Once parents provided consents and
students provided their assents, we distributed a package of
questionnaires to students. Once students completed the ques-
tionnaires, a research assistant collected them from the
schools.
Data Analyses
We screened the variables for normality using skewness and
kurtosis criteria (±2; Trochim & Donnely, 2006). As seen in the
Table 1, none of the current variables were out of recommended
range of skewness and kurtosis; therefore, we did not employ
any transformation. Following this step, we ran a
multicollinearity test among our focal variables (Allen, 1997).
Analyses demonstrated that our “variance inflation factors”
ranged from 1.09 to 1.29 and “tolerance values” ranged from
.77 to .91, indication of that there was no additivity issue among
our predictors (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1995).
For mediation models, we used the PROCESS macro on
the SPSS (Hayes, 2013). We tested the significance of indirect
effects by utilizing the bootstrapping technique where 5000
replications were employed with 95% confidence intervals
(MacKinnon, Fairchild, & Fritz, 2007). This technique has
been found to be preferable to conventional techniques
(Hayes, 2012; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). In these analyses,
we controlled for students’ sex, parent education, and age
depending on statistical bivariate correlations and previous
findings (McMullin & Cairney, 2004; Zhang & Postiglione,
2001).
Curr Psychol

Table 1 Bivariate correlations

and descriptive statistics for study Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
variables (N = 221)
1. Composite Self Esteem –
2. Positive Self Esteem .86** –
3. Negative Self Esteem −.91** −.58** –
4. Emotional Problems −.29** −.23** .28** –
5. Social Media Addiction −.30** −.22** .31** .22** –
6. Age .04 .04 −.03 −.12 −.01 –
7. Parent Education −.02 −.05 −.01 .03 −.07 −.46** –
8. Sex (1 = Female, 0 = Male) −.14* −.07 .17* .29** .20** .02 −.04 –
n 220 220 220 218 215 218 220 221
Mean 3.06 3.27 2.13 8.55 2.51 15.86 −0.01
SD 0.54 0.52 0.68 2.57 0.63 0.91 0.89
Range 1.30–4 1.60–4 1–4 1–15 1–5 13–17 1.64–2.82
Skewness −0.41 −0.44 0.41 0.25 −0.07 −0.31 0.65
Kurtosis 0.14 −0.15 −0.03 −0.12 0.28 −0.63 0.08

*p < .05, two-tailed. **p < .01, two tailed

Results significant. Indeed, the results showed that adolescents with

Preliminary Results
We ran independent t-tests to examine sex differences on
self-esteem, social media addiction, and emotional prob-
lems. Results showed that male adolescents (M = 3.14,
SD = 0.52) reported higher levels of self-esteem than fe-
male adolescents (M = 2.99, SD = 0.54) did, t (218) =
−2.14, p = .03, d = −0.29, 95% CI [−0.55, −0.02].
Female adolescents (M = 9.28, SD = 2.48) reported higher
levels of emotional problems than male adolescents (M =
7.80, SD = 2.44) did, t (216) = 4.44, p < .001, d = 0.60,
95% CI [0.33, 0.87]. In line with this finding, female
adolescents (M = 2.64, SD = 0.60) reported higher levels
of social media addiction than male adolescents (M =
2.38, SD = 0.64) did, t (213) = 3.05, p < .01, d = 0.42,
95% CI [0.15, 0.69]. In addition, we ran bivariate corre-
lations (Pearson) among variables. Self-esteem was nega-
tively correlated with emotional problems, r = −.29, r2 =
08, 95% CI [.03, .16], and social media addiction, r =
−.30, r 2 = .09, 95% CI [.03, .17]. Emotional problems
were positively correlated with social media addiction,
r = .22, r2 = .05, 95% CI [.01, .12]. See Table 1 for com-
plete correlation results.
Mediation Model Results
We examined the mediating role of social media addiction for
the association between emotional problems and self-esteem.
The direct effect from emotional problems to social media
addiction (β = .17, t = 2.33) and that from social media addic-
tion to self-esteem (β = −.22, t = −3.67), were both statistically
higher levels of emotional problems showed higher levels of
social media addiction and, in turn, higher levels of social
media addiction predicted lowers levels of self-esteem. See
Table 2 for details. Bootstrapping analyses showed that the
95% confidence interval limits did not contain zero [−.02,
−.01]. See Fig. 1.
Discussion
In this study, we investigated the associations between
Turkish adolescents’ (i.e., high school students) emotional
problems, social media addiction, and their self-esteem, with
the particular interest of examining the mediating role of so-
cial media addiction between emotional problems and self-
esteem. There are four findings worth discussion in the present
study.
The first finding revealed that the adolescents who reported
higher emotional problems demonstrated the lower levels of
self-esteem. This finding is similar to outcomes of the previ-
ous research (Babore et al., 2016; Rosenberg, Schooler &,
Schoenbach, 1989) showing that the association between
emotional problems and self-esteem is reciprocal, indicating
that negative appraisal towards one’s own self concept is like-
ly to result as emotional problems during adolescence period
(Emler, 2001) and vice versa. This finding could be explained
from the perspective of vulnerability model (Beck, 1967;
Metalsky, Joiner, Hardin, & Abramson, 1993) posing that
the adolescents who experienced emotional problems may
believe negative self-evaluations (i.e., self-esteem) about
themselves, which negatively reflected in their self-esteem.
 Curr Psychol

Table 2 Results from mediation analyses for the paths from emotional problems to self-esteem through social media addiction

Regression path 95% Confidence Interval

B (SE) β t LLCI ULCI

Emotional problems → Social media addiction .04 (.01)* .17 2.33 .01 .07
Social media addiction → Self-esteem −.22 (.05)** −.26 −3.67 −.08 −.02
Emotional problems → Self-esteem .-06 (01)** −.29 −4.21 −.09 −.03
Student sex → Self-esteem −.05 (.07) −.05 −0.71 −.20 .09
Student age → Self-esteem .01 (.04) .01 0.09 −.08 .09
Parent education→ Self-esteem −.01 (.04) −.01 −0.22 −.10 .08
Emotional problems → Social media addiction → Self-esteem −.01 (01)* −.04 −.02 −.01

* p < .05; ** p < .01. Student Sex (1 = Female, 0 = Male). LLCI: Lower Level Confidence Interval. ULCI: Upper Level Confidence Interval. Indirect
path was significant as its confidence intervals did not contain zero

The second finding of this study was that the adolescents
who tended report higher emotional problems also demon-
strated higher levels of social media addiction. This finding
is also congruent with the results of the previous studies
(McCrae et al., 2017; Sheldon, 2008). In details, anxious or
depressed adolescents showed a tendency to excessively use
social media (Woods & Scott, 2016). Further, individuals with
social anxiety tended to use social media as a way of procuring
communication in order to obviate their loneliness (Sheldon,
2008). Similarly, the mechanism behind the association be-
tween emotional problems and excessive social media use
may be based on the notion that the adolescents who are emo-
tionally struggling tend to utilize social media as a coping
strategy in order to deal with their undesirable thoughts and
emotions (Kraut et al., 2002; McCrae et al., 2017).
Third finding in line with the previous research (Vogel
et al., 2014; Woods & Scott, 2016) worth discussing is that
higher levels of social media addiction were related to lower
levels of self-esteem in adolescents. We could explain the
underlying reason for the association between excessive social
media use and lower self-esteem in adolescents from the social
comparison perspective (Valkenburg et al., 2006; Vogel et al.,
2014). From this perspective, the presented finding of higher
social media use in adolescents may be a reflection of a need
in upward social comparison (e.g., “comparing oneself to
superior one with better characteristics”) to find a better self-
reflection. However, because adolescents with higher emo-
tional problems may be prone to be vulnerable to negative
feedback received through social media, this comparison
could be resulted as a decrease in their self-esteem. This con-
ceptualization has been proved in the previous research that
adolescents’ self-esteem was decreased as a consequence of
negative feedback that received on friend networking sites
(Valkenburg et al., 2006). In addition to social comparison,
adolescents could use excessive social media in order to gain
social approval (Blackwell et al. 2017). For example, in one
study with Turkish adolescents, researchers found that the
need for social approval was positively related to social media
addiction (Savci et al., 2019). Further, lower self-esteem has
been found to be both strong predictor of cyberbullying vic-
timization and a negative consequence of experiencing
cyberbullying (Egan & Perry, 1998). While the causal associ-
ation is not present, there has been a suggestion that victims of
cyberbullying who are inclined to utilize social media to ha-
rass or mock others likely to develop lower levels of self-
esteem, which in turn negatively affect their well-being
(Extremera et al., 2018; Palermiti et al., 2017). Putting all
these perspectives together, adolescents who utilize social me-
dia for social approval, social comparison, or venting their
negative experiences could develop lower self-esteem.

Fig. 1 Mediating role of Control Variables for Social Media Addiction

adolescents’ social media Sex: .16, p =.02
Age: -.01, p = .85
addiction between their emotional
Parent Education: -.05, p = .43
problems and self-esteem.
Unstandardized and (standard Social Media Addiction
errors) coefficients are reported.
Indirect effect = −.01, 95% CI
[−.02, −.01]. Sex (1 = Female,
0 = Male)
Emotional Self-Esteem
Problems
Direct effect: -.06, p < .05
Indirect effect: -.01, p < .05
Control Variables for Self-Esteem
Sex: -.01, p =.90
Age: 01, p = .96
Parent Education: -.03, p = .65
Curr Psychol
Our final finding brings all the constructs together
reflecting that the adolescents who reported more emotional
problems tended to report higher levels of social media addic-
tion and, in turn this tendency was related to lower levels of
self-esteem. The explanation for this finding could be based
on the symptoms behind the emotional problems and the de-
sire to overcome the evaded consequences of emotional prob-
lems such as loneliness, sadness, and hopelessness.
Individuals’ tendency to suppress their undesirable symptoms
leads to an excessive usage of social media which may create
an overdependence. Further, students’ elevated emotional
problems could lead them to utilize social media for social
comparisons to peers with better emotional states and these
comparisons create vulnerability in their self-concept and cul-
minate with lower levels of self-esteem (Viner et al., 2019). In
addition, social media may play a role of alternative reality as
social snacking for those who are poorly adjusted (i.e., emo-
tionally unstable); there would be no need to be in the direct
face-to-face contact via social media which may be helpful for
adolescents with emotional problems (Gardner, Pickett, &
Knowles, 2005). In the long run, social snacking for individ-
uals with emotional problems could not provide sense of be-
longing or reduce their lack of social interaction (McLaren,
Gomez, Bailey, & Horst, 2007), which could lead them to
develop lower levels of self-esteem. Bringing all together,
overall, experiencing emotional problems may lead students
to excessively use social media, which in turn, could be det-
rimental for their self-esteem.
Implications
Because adolescence is the period during which vulnerability
for several emotional problems are increased (e.g. depression)
and the strategies to cope with emotional issues (e.g. excessive
use of the internet) utilized by adolescents may create a risky
rather than remedial effect on self-esteem, it is important to
understand the associations between emotional problems, so-
cial media addiction, and self-esteem. In the light of the pro-
posed results of the present study, the further examination on
the association between social media use of adolescents with
higher emotional problems and specific components of social
media, such as the number of likes received on an Instagram
post will contribute to understanding the factors leading to
excessive social media use.
There have been several intervention programs designed to
reduce social media addiction of adolescents with emotional
problems such as depression (Santesteban et al., 2018). For
example, Hou et al. (2019) designed a two-stage intervention
program where students in experimental group provided with
cognitive reconstruction by reflecting on usefulness of social
media; advantages of reducing and disadvantages of excessive
using it. In the second stage, students in the experimental
group as part of the cognitive behavioral techniques kept daily
records of their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors regarding
the social media use (Young, 1999). Students also reflected on
the ways how to reduce excessive social media use in their
lives. Results from the analyses showed that the students in the
experimental group significantly reduced the social media ad-
diction compared to the control group. In addition, self-esteem
and mental health quality in the experimental group increased
from pre to posttests, whereas there was no significant change
for the students in the control group. Aligned with our study, it
appears that intervention programs targeting students’ social
media addiction could help them to have better self-esteem
and mental health as they all work together. Additionally,
the presence of partial mediation and direct link from emo-
tional problems to self-esteem could lead practitioners and
researchers to develop programs targeting reducing emotional
problems of adolescents, which could enhance their self-es-
teem. For instance, a previous review study concluded that
mindfulness-based intervention programs were mostly effec-
tive at reducing negative emotional symptoms (i.e. depression
and anxiety) (Hofmann et al., 2010). Further, mindfulness has
been considered to enable someone to increase awareness on
present-moment-experiences (Kabat-Zinn, 1994), and is relat-
ed to higher levels of self-esteem (Thompson & Waltz, 2008;
Pepping, O’Donovan & Davis, 2013; Rasmussen & Pidgeon,
2011). From this point of view, mindfulness-based interven-
tion programs that focus on reducing emotional problems of
adolescents would be helpful in enhancing their self-esteem.
Limitations and Future Work
One should consider following limitations when interpreting
the results from the present study. First, all data were collected
through self-reports of adolescents. This may have introduced
rater bias and social desirability in the reports of requested
behaviors. Future work may utilize multi-method and infor-
mant for data collection by having peers and parents also
report on same behaviors to capture broader picture of the
requested behaviors. Second, the nature of the study was
cross-sectional that limits causal interpretation of the results.
Another limitation is that adolescents were only from three
schools in a city which may have not be representative for
adolescents in the whole country. Future work may collect
data from different regions of the Turkey to have a represen-
tative sample of adolescents. Finally, we measured the emo-
tional problems with only 5 items which could be limiting our
capability of capturing fine-grained nature of the emotional
symptoms in adolescents. Therefore, one should consider that
elaborative measurement of emotional problems of adoles-
cents in the future work.
Funding There was no specific funding for this project.

Data Availability “The datasets generated during and/or analysed during
the current study are not publicly available due to protect confidentiality
of participants and accommodating regulations of data sharing agreement
of the institution of the authors, but are available from the corresponding
author on reasonable request”.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest The authors, Ibrahim H. Acar, Gokcen Avcılar,
Gozde Yazıcı, and Selen Bostancı personally have not received any
funding for this project. Therefore, the authors declare that they have no
conflict of interest to disclose.
Ethical Approval All procedures performed in studies involving human
participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institu-
tional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki
declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.”
References
Acar, I. H. & Ucus, S., Yildiz, S. (2019). Parenting and Turkish children’s
behavior problems: The moderating role of qualities of parent-child
relationship. Early Child Development and Care, 189(7), 1072–
1085. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1365362.
Allen, M. P. (1997). Understanding regression analysis. NewYork, NY:
Plenum Press.
Andreassen, C. S., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). The relation-
ship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-
esteem: Findings from a large national survey. Addictive
Behaviors, 64, 287–293.
Babore, A., Trumello, C., Candelori, C., Paciello, M., & Cerniglia, L.
(2016). Depressive symptoms, self-esteem and perceived parent–
child relationship in early adolescence. Frontiers in Psychology, 7,
982–989. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00982.
Balat, G. U. ve Akman, B. (2004). Farklı Sosyo-Ekonomik Düzeydeki
Lise Öğrencilerinin Benlik Saygısı Düzeylerinin İncelenmesi [in-
vestigation of self-esteem of high school students from different
Socioeconomical levels]. Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler
Dergisi., 14(2), 175–183.
Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003).
Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal suc-
cess, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the
Public Interest, 4(1), 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1529-1006.
01431.
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bergagna, E., & Tartaglia, S. (2018). Self-esteem, Social comparison, and
Facebook use. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 14(4), 831–845.
https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i4.1592.
Blackwell, D., Leaman, C., Tramposch, R., Osborne, C., & Liss, M.
(2017). Extraversion, neuroticism, attachment style and fear of miss-
ing out as predictors of social media use and addiction. Personality
and Individual Differences, 116, 69–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
paid.2017.04.039.
Cai, H., Brown, J. D., Deng, C., & Oakes, M. A. (2007). Self-esteem and
culture: Differences in cognitive self-evaluations or affective self-
regard? Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 10(3), 162–170. https://
doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-839x.2007.00222.x.
Caplan, S. E. (2003). Preference for online social interaction: A theory of
problematic internet use and psychosocial well-being.
Communication Research, 30(6), 625–648.
Curr Psychol
Caplan, S. E. (2006). Relations among loneliness, social anxiety, and
problematic internet use. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 10(2),
234–242.
Chen, K.-H. (2019). Self-identity and self-esteem during different stages
of adolescence: The function of identity importance and identity
firmness. Chinese Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 55, 27–56.
Çuhadaroğlu, F. (1986). Adölesanlarda Benlik Saygısı [Self-esteem in
adolecents]. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi. Tıp Fak. Psikiyatri
Anabilim Dalı.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-
determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.
Derdikman-Eiron, R. U. T. H., Indredavik, M. S., Bratberg, G. H.,
Taraldsen, G., Bakken, I. J., & Colton, M. (2011). Gender differ-
ences in subjective well-being, self-esteem and psychosocial func-
tioning in adolescents with symptoms of anxiety and depression:
Findings from the Nord-Trøndelag health study. Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology, 52(3), 261–267.
Desjardins, T. L., & Leadbeater, B. J. (2011). Relational victimization
and depressive symptoms in adolescence: Moderating effects of
mother, father, and peer emotional support. Journal of Youth and
Adolescence, 40(5), 531–544.
Egan, S. K., & Perry, D. G. (1998). Does low self-regard invite victimi-
zation? Developmental Psychology, 34, 299–309. https://doi.org/10.
1037/0012-1649.34.2.299.
Emler, N. (2001). Self esteem: The costs and causes of low self worth.
York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York Publishing Services Ltd..
Ethier, K. A., Kershaw, T. S., Lewis, J. B., Milan, S., Niccolai, L. M., &
Ickovics, J. R. (2006). Self-esteem, emotional distress and sexual
behavior among adolescent females: Inter-relationships and tempo-
ral effects. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38(3), 268–274. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.12.010.
Extremera, N., Quintana-Orts, C., Mérida-López, S., & Rey, L. (2018).
Cyberbullying victimization, self-esteem and suicidal ideation in
adolescence: Does emotional intelligence play a buffering role?
Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.
2018.00367.
Fabris, M. A., Marengo, D., Longobardi, C., & Settanni, M. (2020).
Investigating the links between fear of missing out, social media
addiction, and emotional symptoms in adolescence: The role of
stress associated with neglect and negative reactions on social me-
dia. Addictive Behaviors, 106364, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
addbeh.2020.106364.
Gardner, W. L., Pickett, C. L., & Knowles, M. (2005). Social snacking
and shielding: Using Social symbols, selves, and surrogates in the
Service of Belonging Needs. In K. D. Williams, J. P. Forgas, & W.
von Hippel (Eds.), Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology series.
The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and
bullying (pp. 227–241). Psychology Press.
Goodman, R. (1997). The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A re-
search note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581–
586.
Güvenir, T., Özbek, A., Baykara, B., Arkar, H., Sentürk, B., & Inceka, s.
S. (2008). Güçler Ve Güçlükler Anketi’nin (GGA) Türkçe
Uyarlamasının Psikometrik Özellikleri. Çocuk ve Gençlik Ruh
Sagligi Dergisi, 15, 65–74.
Gunuc, S., & Dogan, A. (2013). The relationships between Turkish ado-
lescents’ internet addiction, their perceived social support and fam-
ily activities. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(6), 2197–2207.
Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., & Black, W. C. (1995).
Multivariate data analysis. NJ Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs.
Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2017). The relations among social media
addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students.
Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576–586.
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for ob-
served variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process
Curr Psychol
modeling [white paper]. Retrieved from https://www.bit.ly/
2PAncTH. Accessed 10 Apr 2020.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and condi-
tional process analysis a regression-based approach. New York,
NY: Guilford Press.
Heine, S. J., Lehman, D. R., Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1999). Is
there a universal need for positive self-regard? Psychological
Review, 106, 766–794.
Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect
of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-
analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78,
169–183. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018555.
Houghton, S., Lawrence, D., Hunter, S. C., Rosenberg, M., Zadow, C.,
Wood, L., & Shilton, T. (2018). Reciprocal relationships between
trajectories of depressive symptoms and screen media use during
adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 2453–2467.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0901-y.
Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media
addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention.
Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on
Cyberspace, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2019-1-4.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness med-
itation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.
Kessler, R. C., Angermeyer, M., Anthony, J. C., De Graaf, R.,
Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., DE Girolamo, G., Gluzman, S.,
Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Kawakami, N., Karam, A., Levinson, D.,
Medina Mora, M. E., Oakley Browne, M. A., Posada-Villa, J., Stein,
D. J., Adley Tsang, C. H., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., et al.
(2007). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental
disorders in the World Health Organization's world mental health
survey initiative. World psychiatry: Official journal of the World
Psychiatric Association (WPA), 6(3), 168–176.
Kieling, C., Baker-Henningham, H., Belfer, M., Conti, G., Ertem, I.,
Omigbodun, O., … Rahman, A. (2011). Child and adolescent men-
tal health worldwide: Evidence for action. The Lancet, 378(9801),
1515–1525. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60827-1.
Kircaburun, K. (2016). Self-esteem, daily internet use and social media
addiction as predictors of depression among Turkish adolescents.
Journal of Education and Practice, 7(24), 64–72.
Kırcaburun, K., Kokkinos, C. M., Demetrovics, Z., Király, O., Griffiths,
M. D., & Çolak, T. S. (2019). Problematic online behaviors among
adolescents and emerging adults: Associations between
cyberbullying perpetration, problematic social media use, and psy-
chosocial factors. International Journal of Mental Health and
Addiction, 17(4), 891–908. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-018-
9894-8.
Kling, K. C., Hyde, J. S., Showers, C. J., & Buswell, B. N. (1999).
Gender differences in self-esteem: A meta-analysis. Psychological
Bulletin, 125(4), 470–500. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.
4.470.
Kraut, R., Kiesler, S., Boneva, B., Cummings, J., Helgeson, V., &
Crawford, A. (2002). Internet paradox revisited. Journal of Social
Issues, 58(1), 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00248.
Leary, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-
esteem: Sociometer theory. Advances in Experimental Social
Psychology, 32, 1–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(00)
80003-9.
Leavitt, P. A., Covarrubias, R., Perez, Y. A., & Fryberg, S. A. (2015).
“Frozen in time”: The impact of native American media representa-
tions on identity and self-understanding. Journal of Social Issues,
71(1), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12095.
Longobardi, C., Settanni, M., Fabris, M. A., & Marengo, D. (2020).
Follow or be followed: Exploring the links between Instagram pop-
ularity, social media addiction, cyber victimization, and subjective
happiness in Italian adolescents. Children and Youth Services
Review, 104955.
Lopez, A. D., Mathers, C. D., Ezzati, M., Jamison, D. T., & Murray, C. J.
(Eds.). (2006). Global burden of disease and risk factors. The World
Bank.
Luciana, M. (2013). Adolescent brain development in normality and psy-
chopathology. Development and psychopathology, 25(4 0 2), 1325.
MacKinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J., & Fritz, M. S. (2007). Mediation
analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593–614.
McMullin, J. A., & Cairney, J. (2004). Self-esteem and the intersection of
age, class, and gender. Journal of Aging Studies, 18(1), 75–90.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2003.09.006.
McCrae, N., Gettings, S., & Purssell, E. (2017). Social media and depres-
sive symptoms in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review.
Adolescent Research Review, 2(4), 315–330. https://doi.org/10.
1007/s40894-017-0053-4.
McLaren, S., Gomez, R., Bailey, M., & Horst, R. K. V. D. (2007). The
association of depression and sense of belonging with suicidal ide-
ation among older adults: Applicability of resiliency models. Suicide
and Life-threatening Behavior, 37(1), 89–102.
Metalsky, G. I., Joiner, T. E., Hardin, T. S., & Abramson, L. Y. (1993).
Depressive reactions to failure in a naturalistic setting: A test of the
hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 102, 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/
0021-843X.102.1.101.
Minev, M., Petrova, B., Mineva, K., Petkova, M., & Strebkova, R.
(2018). Self-esteem in adolescence. Trakia Journal of Sciences, 2,
114–118. https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2018.02.007.
Nesi, J., Choukas-Bradley, S., & Prinstein, M. J. (2018). Transformation
of adolescent peer relations in the social media context: Part 1—A
theoretical framework and application to dyadic peer relationships.
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 21(3), 267–294.
Oberst, U., Wegmann, E., Stodt, B., Brand, M., & Chamarro, A. (2017).
Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adoles-
cents: The mediating role of fear of missing out. Journal of
Adolescence, 55, 51–60 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.
2016.12.008.
Orth, U., Robins, R. W., & &amp; Roberts, B. W. (2008). Low self-
esteem prospectively predicts depression in adolescence and young
adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(3),
695–708.
Owens, T. (1994). Two dimensions of self-esteem: Reciprocal effects of
positive self-worth and self-deprecation on adolescent problems.
American Sociological Review, 59(3), 391–407.
Palermiti, A. L., Servidio, R., Bartolo, M. G., & Costabile, A. (2017).
Cyberbullying and self-esteem: An Italian study. Computers in
Human Behavior, 69, 136–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.
12.026.
Pepping, C. A., O’Donovan, A., & Davis, P. J. (2013). The positive
effects of mindfulness on self-esteem. The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 8(5), 376–386.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for
estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior
Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 717–731.
Rasmussen, M. K., & Pidgeon, A. M. (2011). The direct and indirect
benefits of dispositional mindfulness on self-esteem and social anx-
iety. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 24, 227–233. https://doi.org/10.
1080/10615806.2010.515681.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image (pp. 2–34).
Princeton. NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenberg, M., Schooler, C., & Schoenbach, C. (1989). Self-esteem and
adolescent problems: Modeling reciprocal effects. American
Sociological Review, 54(6), 1004–1018. https://doi.org/10.2307/
2095720.
Rosenberg, M., & Owens, T. J. (2001). Low self-esteem people: A col-
lective portrait. In T. J. Owens, S. Stryker, & N. Goodman (Eds.),
Extending self-esteem theory and research (pp. 400–436).
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Şahin, C. (2017). The predictive level of social media addiction for life
satisfaction: A study on University students. TOJET: The Turkish
Online Journal of Educational Technology, 6(4), 120–125.
Sahin, C. (2018). Social media addiction scale-student form: The reliabil-
ity and validity study. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational
Technology, 17, 169–182.
Santesteban-Echarri, O., Álvarez-Jiménez, M., Gleeson, J., & Rice, S. M.
(2018). Social media interventions for adolescents and Young peo-
ple with depression and psychosis. Technology and Adolescent
Mental Health, 187–205. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-
69638-6_14.
Savci, M., Turan, M. E., Griffiths, M. D., & Ercengiz, M. (2019).
Histrionic personality, narcissistic personality, and problematic
Social media use: Testing of a new hypothetical model.
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, Advance
online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00139-5.
Schraedley, P. K., Gotlib, I. H., & Hayward, C. (1999). Gender differ-
ences in correlates of depressive symptoms in adolescents. Journal
of Adolescent Health, 25(2), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1054-
139x(99)00038-5.
Schufreider, M. M. (2015). Relationship of Facebook usage and
Facebook belongingness to emerging Adulthood’s self-esteem and
Social identity. In Unpublished Master’s thesis. Northern Illinois
University, Ann Arbor: ProQuest LLC.
Shavers, C. A. (2014). Commentary: Emotional problems and depression
among children and adolescents in today’s society. Open Journal of
Depression, 3, 74–87. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojd.2014.32012.
Sheldon, P. (2008). The relationship between unwillingness-to-
communicate and students’ Facebook use. Journal of Media
Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20(2), 67–75.
https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105.20.2.67.
Shepherd, R. M., & Edelmann, R. J. (2005). Reasons for internet use and
social anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 949–958.
Statista (2019). Reach of leading social media and networking sites used
by teenagers and young adults in the United States as of October
2019. https://www.statista.com/statistics/199242/ social-media-and-
networking-sites-used-by-us-teenagers/. .
Thompson, B. L., & Waltz, J. A. (2008). Mindfulness, self-esteem, and
unconditional self-acceptance. Journal of Rational-Emotive
Cognitive-Behaior Therapy, 26, 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s10942-007-0059-0.
Trochim, W. M., & Donnelly, J. P. (2006). The research methods
Knowledge Base (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog.
Turkish Statistical Institute (2020). Population and demography.
Retrieved from http://www.turkstat.gov.tr/UstMenu.do?metod=
temelist. .
Tukuş, L. (2010). The Self Esteem Rating Scale-Short Form (Benlik
Saygısı Değerlendirme Ölçeği-Kısa Formu) Türkçe güvenilirlik ve
geçerlilik çalışması (Tıpta Uzmanlık). Kocaeli: Kocaeli Üniversitesi
Tıp Fakültesi.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2002). Self-esteem and socioeco-
nomic status: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social
Curr Psychol
Psychology Review, 6(1), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.1207/
s15327957pspr0601_3.
Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., & Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend network-
ing sites and their relationship to adolescents' well-being and social
self-esteem. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 9(5), 584–590.
Van Droogenbroeck, F., Spruyt, B., & Keppens, G. (2018). Gender dif-
ferences in mental health problems among adolescents and the role
of social support: Results from the Belgian health interview surveys
2008 and 2013. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1), 1591–1595. https://doi.org/
10.1186/s12888-018-1591-4.
Viner, R. M., Aswathikutty-Gireesh, A., Stiglic, N., Hudson, L. D.,
Goddings, A.-L., Ward, J. L., & Nicholls, D. E. (2019). Roles of
cyberbullying, sleep, and physical activity in mediating the effects of
social media use on mental health and wellbeing among young
people in England: A secondary analysis of longitudinal data. The
Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 3(10), 685–696. https://doi.org/
10.1016/s2352-4642(19)30186-5.
Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Roberts, L. R., & Eckles, K. (2014). Social
comparison, social media, and self-esteem. Psychology of Popular
Media Culture, 3(4), 206–222.
Wadman, R., Botting, N., Durkin, K., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2011).
Changes in emotional health symptoms in adolescents with specific
language impairment. International Journal of Language &
Communication Disorders, 46(6), 641–656.
We Are Social. (2020). Digital in 2020: Global digital overview report.
Retrieved from https://wearesocial.com/digital-2020. .
Wood, M. A., Bukowski, W. M., & Lis, E. (2016). The digital self: How
social media serves as a setting that shapes youth’s emotional expe-
riences. Adolescent Research Review, 1(2), 163–173.
White, R., & Renk, K. (2012). Externalizing behavior problems during
adolescence: An ecological perspective. Journal of Child and
Family Studies, 21(1), 158–171.
Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). Sleepyteens: Social media use in
adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depres-
sion and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41–49.
Young, K. S. (1999). Internet addiction: Symptoms, evaluation and treat-
ment. In L. VandeCreek & T. L. Jackson (Eds.), Innovations in
clinical practice: A source book (Vol. 17, pp. 19–31). Sarasota,
FL: Professional Resource Press.
Yurdagül, C., Kircaburun, K., Emirtekin, E., Wang, P., & Griffiths, M. D.
(2019). Psychopathological consequences related to problematic
Instagram use among adolescents: The mediating role of body im-
age dissatisfaction and moderating role of gender. International
Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.
1007/s11469-019-00071-8.
Zhang, L., & Postiglione, G. A. (2001). Thinking styles, self-esteem, and
socio-economic status. Personality and Individual Differences,
31(8), 1333–1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(00)00227-0.
Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic-
tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.