Emotion Regulation Strategies and Social Media Addiction: Gender-Specific Pathways Through Social Anxiety and Depression in Youth

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of social media addiction (SMA) among adolescents poses significant challenges for mental health, highlighting the need for effective prevention and intervention strategies. This study investigates how two well-known emotion regulation strategies—cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression—relate to SMA, with depressive symptoms and social anxiety as mediators, focusing on gender differences in an Italian adolescent sample. Using multiple-group path analysis, results showed that both expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal directly predict SMA similarly across genders, while indirect effects via depressive symptoms and social anxiety differ by gender. Expressive suppression was positively associated with depressive symptoms and social anxiety, with stronger expressive suppression–depressive symptom links in males and stronger expressive suppression–social anxiety links in females. Cognitive reappraisal was protective, particularly against social anxiety in females. Depressive symptoms mediated the impact of emotion regulation strategies on SMA more strongly in females, whereas social anxiety mediated these effects mainly in males, with social anxiety directly linked to SMA only in males. These gender-specific pathways highlight distinct emotional vulnerabilities contributing to SMA. The study also provides a primary validation of the Italian Social Media Use Disorder Scale for Adolescents, reinforcing its utility as a reliable tool for assessing SMA. Overall, these findings offer valuable insights for developing gender-sensitive, targeted prevention and treatment programs aimed at improving adolescent emotional well-being and reducing SMA risk.