Digital Stress as a Mediator of the Relationship between Mobile and Social Media Use and Psychological Functioning

Abstract

The present investigation uses Apple iPhone Screen Time to assess the association between mobile and social media use and psychological functioning with digital stress as a mediator in a sample of young adult (N = 267) and adolescent (N = 213) participants. The results of preregistered hypotheses suggest that as a five-factor composite (i.e., connection overload, approval anxiety, fear of missing out, availability stress, online vigilance) digital stress does not mediate the primary association. Connection overload, however, was a mediator of this relationship for all participants. Conditional process analyses revealed that for adolescents, FoMO and approval anxiety also mediated the primary association, but these digital stress subfactors were not mediators for young adult participants. Additionally, for young adults, mobile and social media use was associated with more positive peer relationships. The results suggest digital stress is closely tied to individuals’ social environment and peer-related sources of stress.