Rumination and subjective well-being: The chain mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties and problematic social media use

Based on the Compensatory Internet Use Model and the I-PACE framework, the present study develops a serial mediation model grounded in a cognition-emotion-behavior pathway. Specifically, this study examined whether difficulties in emotion regulation and problematic social media use were associated with the relationship between rumination and subjective well-being among a sample of vocational college students within the context of increasingly digitalized everyday life.

A survey was conducted among 402 vocational college students using the Ruminative Responses Scale, the Brief the Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Problematic Social Media Use Questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule.

Rumination was positively associated with difficulties in emotion regulation and problematic social media use, whereas subjective well-being was negatively associated with all three variables. Difficulties in emotion regulation were also positively correlated with problematic social media use. Mediation analyses identified three significant indirect pathways: the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation, accounting for 35.49% of the total effect; the mediating role of problematic social media use, accounting for 22.35%; and the serial mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation and problematic social media use, accounting for 12.16%.

The findings suggest that difficulties in emotion regulation and problematic social media use are associated with the relationship between rumination and subjective well-being among the sampled vocational college students. These findings may provide preliminary implications for interventions targeting emotion regulation and problematic social media use among vocational college students.