Self-compassion moderates the predictive effects of social media use profiles on depression and anxiety

Abstract

This study identified patterns of social media use, examined their relationships with anxiety and depression, and investigated whether levels of self-compassion moderated these relationships. Three-hundred university students who used social media (Mage = 34.90, SD = 11.19, 77.3% female) completed an online survey. Variables that assessed time spent on social media, frequency of use, problematic social media use, fear of missing out, emotional responses to using social media, and perceptions of online interactions were subjected to a two-step cluster analysis. Four distinct social media use profiles emerged: Problem Users, Disenchanted Dabblers, Moderate Users, and Contented Dabblers. ANOVAs revealed that Problem Users reported higher mean levels of anxiety and depression than did the other three groups. However, subsequent moderation analyses found that self-compassion buffered these relationships, with highly self-compassionate Problem Users reporting similar levels of anxiety and depression to the other profile groups. These findings suggest that self-compassion may protect vulnerable social media users against anxiety and depression. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords

• Social media
• Social media use profiles
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Self-compassion