ArticleJournal of behavioral addictions2021
Identifying the central symptoms of problematic social networking sites use through network analysis.
Article in Journal of behavioral addictions, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Problematic Social Media Use: Which symptoms are necessary conditions for reduced control and negative outcomes to occur over time?Journal of behavioral addictions · 2026Article
- When social media hurts: a nine-month prospective study on self-blame as a mediator between problematic social media use and suicidal ideation in adolescents.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and psychological well-being in adolescents: exploring networks of symptoms in 10 European countries.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Needs in Perceived Parenting Styles and Social Media Addiction Among University Students: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Article
- A proposed model of the maintenance and exacerbation of body image and eating concerns in the context of problematic social network use.Addictive behaviors reports · 2025Review
- A 2-wave study on the associations between dissociative experiences, maladaptive daydreaming, bodily dissociation, and problematic social media use.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2025Article
- Clarifying the relationship between insecure attachment and problematic social media use across platforms: a network analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Toward the classification of social media use disorder: Clinical characterization and proposed diagnostic criteria.Addictive behaviors reports · 2025Review
- Loneliness moderates the predictive effect of the trait-state FoMO pathway on problematic social media use.Addictive behaviors reports · 2025Article
- Partner's problematic social media use, woman's time perspective, and prenatal depression.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Article
- Network analysis of DSM-5 criteria for gambling disorder: considering sex differences in a large clinical sample.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2024Article
- Network modeling of problematic social media use components in college student social media users.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The Predictive Role of Tolerance and Health Problems in Problem Gambling: A Cross-Sectional and Cross-Lagged Network Analyses.Journal of gambling studies · 2023Article
- Vulnerable Narcissism and Problematic Social Networking Sites Use: Focusing the Lens on Specific Motivations for Social Networking Sites Use.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Do the core symptoms play key roles in the development of problematic smartphone use symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProblematic social media use (PSMU) has received growing attention in the last fifteen years. Even though PSMU has been extensively studied, its internal structure is not fully understood. We used network analysis to evaluate which symptoms and associations between symptoms are most central to PSMU - as assessed by the Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale-2 adapted for PSMU - among undergraduates.
methodNetwork analysis was applied to a large gender-balanced sample of undergraduates (n = 1344 participants; M = 51.9%; mean age = 22.50 ± 2.20 years).
resultsThe most central nodes in the network were the difficulty of controlling one's own use of social media, the tendency to think obsessively about going online, the difficulties in resisting the urge to use social media and the preference for communicating with people online rather than face-to-face. This last element was strongly associated with a general preference for online social interactions and the feeling of being more comfortable online. The network was robust to stability and accuracy tests. The mean levels of symptoms and symptom centrality were not associated.
conclusionsDeficient self-regulation and preference for online communication were the most central symptoms of PSMU, suggesting that these symptoms should be prioritized in theoretical models of PSMU and could also serve as important treatment targets for PSMU interventions.
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