Introduction: Young adults are increasingly vulnerable to excessive engagement with social media, often leading to disruptions in mental health and daily life. While social difficulties are known to influence digital habits, the pathways that connect interpersonal traits to problematic social media use (PSMU) remain underexplored.
Purpose: This study investigates whether interpersonal sensitivity, a heightened tendency to perceive and react strongly to social rejection, is linked to PSMU. It further examines whether this relationship is explained by emotion regulation difficulties and metacognitive beliefs about social media use.
Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 768 young adults aged 18 to 29 years (M=21.89, SD=3.17) from different regions of India. Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing interpersonal sensitivity, emotion dysregulation, metacognitions related to social media and PSMU. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted using RStudio to test the hypothesized mediation model.
Results: Interpersonal sensitivity was found to significantly predict PSMU. The analysis revealed a significant indirect effect through a serial mediation pathway involving emotion dysregulation, positive metacognitions and negative metacognitions. This suggests that individuals with high levels of interpersonal sensitivity may develop emotion regulation difficulties and maladaptive beliefs about social media use, leading to more frequent and problematic engagement.
Conclusion: These findings shed light on the psychological mechanism linking interpersonal vulnerability to digital overuse. Interventions aimed at reducing PSMU in interpersonally sensitive young adults may benefit from addressing emotion regulation challenges and targeting dysfunctional metacognitive patterns tied to social media use.