Association Between Perceived Stress, Self-Control, Subjective Well-Being and Social Media Addiction During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

Abstract

According to Malaysia’s statistic result from 2016 to 2021, people spend more and more time in social media and eventually addicted to it especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive roles of perceived stress, self-control, and subjective well-being on young adults’ social media addiction in Malaysia during the period of Covid-19 pandemic. There were 152 respondents participated in this survey. They were 62 males and 90 females who are within the age of 18-30. The results showed that self-control and subjective well-being significantly predicted social media addiction while perceived stress did not significantly predict social media addiction. This study prove that self-control and subjective well-being are the factors to predict social media addiction. The findings are beneficial in developing an intervention or program to minimize social media addiction.