Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 112, January 2021, 106559
Addictive Behaviors

The emotion regulatory function of online social networking: Preliminary experimental evidence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106559Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Emotion regulation deficits are implicated in substance and behavioral addictions.

  • We explore the emotion regulatory function of social networking site (SNS) use.

  • Problematic SNS use was linked to greater self-reported emotion regulation deficits.

  • Experimental induction of positive and negative affect reduced urge to access SNS.

  • Compared to a control website, SNS use produced greater increase in positive affect.

Abstract

Correlational research suggests that emotion regulation deficits, which are known risk factors for substance addictions, may also play a role in the development of problem behaviors such as excessive or maladaptive use of social networking sites (SNS). This study sought to experimentally assess the hypothesized emotion regulatory function of SNS use. 139 undergraduates (53.2% female) were randomized to view brief movie clips known to reliably induce positive (37.4%), negative (29.5%), or neutral mood (33.1%) and then to browse a SNS (46.8%) or control website (53.2%). Mood and subjective urge to access SNS and the Internet were assessed before and after viewing the movie clips and browsing the websites. Participants meeting criteria for “moderate” levels of disordered SNS use self-reported significantly greater deficits in emotion regulation (p = .02, ηp2 = 0.14). Increases in positive and negative affect following the mood induction were associated with a decrease in subjective urge to access SNS (r = −0.22, p = .02, r = −0.28, p = .002, respectively). Time spent browsing SNS resulted in significantly greater increases in self-reported positive affect, compared to the control website (p = .001, ηp2 = 0.09). We replicate previous findings of greater emotion regulation deficits in individuals endorsing problematic SNS use. Increased positive and negative affect resulted in decreased urge to access SNS, suggesting that social networking may primarily serve to counter low-arousal emotions like boredom. Data provide initial experimental evidence to support the hypothesized emotion regulatory function of SNS, with SNS exposure resulting in increased positive affect. Findings suggest that interventions targeting problematic SNS use should incorporate strategies for improved emotion regulation.

Introduction

Emotion regulation consists of attempts to initiate, maintain, and/or modulate the occurrence, intensity, and/or expression of emotions (Thompson, 1994). Deficits in emotion regulation are well-documented risk factors for substance addictions (Aldao et al., 2010, Wong et al., 2013), and have also been implicated in non-substance or behavioral addictions, such as pathological gambling (de Castro et al., 2007, Williams et al., 2012). Behavioral addictions are a proposed new category of disorders of persistent engagement in specific rewarding behaviors despite adverse consequences. In the same way that individuals use addictive substances to help upregulate positive emotions and downregulate negative emotions, they may also engage in potentially addictive behaviors. Indeed, problematic Internet use and problematic smartphone use have been linked to deficits in emotion regulation (Akbari, 2017, Casale et al., 2016, Rozgonjuk and Elhai, 2019). Excessive or maladaptive online social networking site (SNS) use is a similar potentially addictive behavior. Whereas there is a growing body of literature documenting the addictive nature of excessive or maladaptive SNS use, the role of deficits in emotion regulation as a risk factor in its development and/or maintenance remains largely unexamined.

Online SNS are virtual communities in which users can create profiles, interact with real-life friends, share life updates, and meet new people. Use of SNS is highly prevalent with approximately 79% of the United States population maintaining at least one SNS account, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram.1 Research has suggested that individuals use SNS predominantly for social purposes (Kuss & Griffiths, 2011), though they also provide an increasingly important source of news and current events updates for many users (Glynn et al., 2012, Muller et al., 2016).

A growing body of evidence indicates that SNS use may also serve an emotion regulatory function, such that engagement with social networking sites may upregulate positive affect and/or downregulate negative affect. Notably, most relevant research is correlational in nature and uses proxy measures of emotion regulation, such as affective states or user satisfaction. For instance, Dolev-Cohen and Barak (2013) found associations between friends’ instant messaging and recipients’ positive mood states. They argue that this form of written communication provides feedback that promotes self-regulatory behaviors such as self-organization and self-reflection (Dolev-Cohen & Barak, 2013). Similarly, Bazarova and colleagues (2015) determined that SNS users selectively share information (e.g., post Facebook status updates) with different network channels to support specific interpersonal emotion regulation goals (Bazarova, Choi, Schwanda Sosik, Cosley, & Whitlock, 2015). Additionally, Mauri and colleagues (2011) found that SNS use elicits a specific psychophysiological pattern characterized by positive valence and high arousal (Mauri, Cipresso, Balgera, Villamira, & Riva, 2011). Notably, these aforementioned studies did not investigate participants’ difficulties with emotion regulation prior to SNS engagement. If SNS serves an emotion regulatory function, this may leave individuals with existing deficits in emotion regulation more prone to excessive or maladaptive use of social networking platforms.

Use of SNS has been associated with several positive psychosocial outcomes, including perceived social support, low levels of stress, life satisfaction, and well-being (Lee et al., 2013, Nabi et al., 2013, Oh et al., 2014). However, excessive or maladaptive (i.e., addiction-like) SNS use has been linked to negative psychological and psychosocial outcomes, including depression, social anxiety, binge drinking, and “phubbing” (i.e., diverting one’s attention from an in-person interaction in favor of a mobile phone; Karadag et al., 2015, Spilkova et al., 2017, Wegmann et al., 2015). Differentiating between reasonable and excessive use of SNS and identifying correlates of each are important research objectives. Recently, studies demonstrated that fear of missing out (FoMO), or apprehension about one’s absence from potentially rewarding life experiences that others appear to be enjoying, was a major predictor of addiction-like SNS use (Blackwell et al., 2017, Pontes et al., 2018). Studies have also shown that FoMO mediated the relationship between psychopathology, specifically depression and social anxiety, and severity of problematic SMS use (Dempsey et al., 2019, Oberst et al., 2017). Other identified correlates of addiction-like SNS use include preference for online social interaction and maladaptive cognitive biases (Lee and Cheung, 2014, Pontes et al., 2018).

Addiction-like SNS use has also been linked to emotion regulation difficulties and reliance on predominantly maladaptive regulatory strategies. Hormes and colleagues (2014) found that “disordered SNS use,” determined via modified diagnostic criteria for alcohol abuse and dependence, was associated with increased self-reported experiential avoidance and greater self-reported emotion regulation difficulties. Specifically, individuals who met criteria for disordered SNS use reported greater non-acceptance of emotional responses, more limited access to emotion regulation strategies, greater difficulty controlling impulses, and greater difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior (Hormes, Kearns, & Timko, 2014). In another study, the relationship between social anxiety and problematic Facebook use was mediated by rumination, a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy characterized by a repetitive focus on negative thoughts (Dempsey et al., 2019).

Whereas the literature on addiction-like SNS use and emotion regulation is limited, other studies have found negative relationships between amount or frequency of SNS use, in general, and adaptive emotion regulation. For instance, a recent study of adolescents found greater Facebook use predicted decreased emotional self-awareness (Crandall, 2018). Additionally, in adolescents, both frequent Facebook usage and ruminating while using Facebook were linked to enhanced negative emotional consequences after a stressor (e.g., the end of a romantic relationship; Tran & Joormann, 2015). In college-aged students, Locatelli, Kluwe, and Bryant (2012) found that frequency of Facebook use, as determined by frequency of status updates, was associated with a tendency to ruminate. Moreover, rumination mediated the impact of status updates on subjective well-being (Locatelli et al., 2012).

Notably, addiction-like SNS use is more than using SNS frequently or for long periods of time and is usually conceptualized as use that is habitual, excessive, involves a lack of control, interferes with other life tasks, and/or causes symptoms observed in substance use disorders, such as withdrawal and changes in mood (Griffiths et al., 2014, Ryan et al., 2014). However, Dempsey and colleagues (2019) recently found that Facebook use frequency was related to problematic Facebook use severity (Dempsey et al., 2019). Similarly, other studies have demonstrated a relationship between frequent SNS use and problematic SNS use (Ryan et al., 2014, Salehan and Negahban, 2013). In other words, whereas high levels of time, frequency, and level of engagement of SNS use are not necessarily maladaptive, they may interact with other individual vulnerability factors to increase likelihood of addiction-like SNS use and negative consequences (Muench et al., 2015, Turel and Serenko, 2012).

Recent theoretical models of the etiology of specific Internet-use disorders, such as the I-PACE framework, postulate that these conditions are caused by a complex interplay of biopsychological predisposing factors, a variety of cognitive and affective moderating and mediating variables, and conditioned situational triggers (Brand, Young, Laier, Wolfling, & Potenza, 2016). Within this theoretical framework, deficits in emotion regulation are thought to predispose individuals towards the development of problematic SNS use, a hypothesis that is consistent with much of the existing literature. This study was designed to replicate previous findings of an association between problematic SNS use and difficulties with emotion regulation. Moreover, it sought to assess the posited emotion regulatory function of SNS use via an experimental design in a laboratory setting. We hypothesized that (1) problematic SNS use is associated with greater self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation, (2) negative affective states increase subjective urge to access SNS, and (3) SNS use, compared to time spent on a control website, produces greater increases in positive affect and greater decreases in negative affect.

Section snippets

Material and methods

All methods were reviewed and approved by the local Institutional Review Board. Participants were informed of the nature of the study and consented prior to participation.

Internet and social networking site use

All participants endorsed regular access to the Internet, with 97.8% (n = 136) reporting accessing the Internet via a smart phone. About half of respondents (51.8%, n = 72) reported spending more than three hours on the Internet on an average day, with an average of almost four hours spent on the Internet on the previous day (M = 222.10 min, SD = 193.06). Two thirds of participants (66.2%, n = 92) reported spending at least an hour on social networking sites on an average day, with an average

Discussion

This study examined the association between problematic SNS use and difficulties with emotion regulation and investigated whether SNS use serves an emotion regulatory function in an experimental design. Findings provide partial support for our hypotheses that (1) problematic SNS use is associated with greater self-reported difficulties in emotion regulation, (2) negative affective states increase subjective urge to access SNS, and (3) SNS use, compared to time spent on a control website,

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental test of the potential emotion regulatory function of SNS use. We replicate prior findings of significantly elevated deficits in emotion regulation in individuals with problematic SNS use. We add to this preliminary evidence that SNS use increases positive affect. Findings highlight the importance of continued research of the relationship between emotion regulation and SNS use, both typical and problematic. Moreover, they suggest that

Contributors

NCO and JMH designed the study, NCO collected the data; all authors contributed to the analyses and writing of the manuscript and approve of the manuscript in its current form.

Role of funding sources

This research did not receive any funding that could be perceived as influencing the work.

Conflict of interest

None.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Rae D. Drach: Validation, Formal analysis, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Natalia C. Orloff: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft. Julia M. Hormes: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration.

Acknowledgements

N/A.

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