Social Media Usage and Its Association With the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire Scale Among Early Adolescents

Despite increasing social media use among adolescents, few studies have investigated social media use patterns associated with the Social Media Addiction Questionnaire Scale. Social media addiction (SMA) is characterized in terms of social media platforms, engagement patterns, and account settings.

Cross-sectional data on youth 10 to 13 years of age from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study (n = 5,639) were used. The majority of the sample were female, White, and from families living above poverty. SMA was assessed via an adapted scale. Regression models assessed links between SMA and hours spent per day on social media, most-used platform, public and secret accounts, and follower and following counts.

SMA was higher among youth whose most-used platforms were TikTok (b = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.12, 1.93), Instagram (b = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.51, 1.34), and Snapchat (b = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.16, 1.03). Those with a public account (b = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.56, 1.13), a secret account (b = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.65, 2.89), or reporting more social media hours (b = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.61, 0.71) had higher SMA scores. Weak interactions between social media hours and platforms were observed.

Higher SMA scores were most associated with TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat use as well as using a public account, a secret account, and spending more time on social media. The relationship between social media hours and SMA confirms previous findings. This is the first study to investigate the relationship between account settings and SMA.