ArticleInternational journal of environmental research and public health2022
The Effect of Problematic Social Media Use on Happiness among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Lifestyle Habits.
Article in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Promoting Self-Regulated Social Media Use on Smartphones With a Mobile Intervention App (Wellspent): Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Trial
- Subjective happiness moderates the relationship between implicit and explicit attitudes and excessive digital media use among adolescents.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Problematic social media use and psychosocial conditions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Cyberbullying Perpetration and Socio-Behavioral Correlates in Italian and Spanish Preadolescents: A Cross-National Study and Serial Mediation Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Types of Adolescent Screen Use and Positive Wellbeing: Gender and Parental Education Influences.Journal of happiness studies · 2025Article
- Affective-Sexual Behaviors in Youth: Analysis of a Public Health Survey in the School Setting.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Social Media and Adolescents (Opportunities and Threats): A Letter to Editor.Iranian journal of public health · 2024Article
- Social Media Addiction and Cognitive Behavioral Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls: A Cross-Sectional Study.Public health nursing (Boston, Mass.)Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Although the relationship between problematic social media use (PSMU) and happiness has been already explored, less is known about the mechanisms that translate PSMU into lower happiness through lifestyle habits. Therefore, the current study focuses on the association between PSMU and happiness, exploring a mediating effect of lifestyle habits (e.g., difficulties in getting to sleep and frequency of physical activity) among Italian adolescents. Methods: A total of 58,976 Italian adolescents (mean age = 13.6, SD = 1.63; age range = 10.5−16.5; 49.4% females) were included. The pattern of relationships specified by the theoretical model was examined through path analysis. Results: Difficulties in getting to sleep (β = −0.037, p < 0.001) and frequency of physical activity (β = −0.012, p < 0.001) were mediators in the relationship between PSMU and happiness. Multi-group analyses across gender and age groups (11, 13, and 15 years old) showed that the chain mediating effect of the frequency of physical activity on the difficulties in getting to sleep was not significant for females but significant for males and for all of the three age groups. Overall, females and older ages were sensitive to the whole model. Conclusion: Along with difficulties in getting to sleep and the frequency of physical activity, lifestyle habits may contribute to the association between PSMU and happiness. We also recommend that future studies focus on PSMU in females and older adolescents, as they show more general sleep problems and reduced physical activity.
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