Procrastination, problematic Instagram Story use, and Instagram Story-related social media disorder symptoms: A...

Instagram Stories provide rapidly accessible and repeatedly refreshed content that may be used for entertainment, distraction, or short-term mood repair. However, frequent engagement should not be equated automatically with addiction or clinically significant impairment. This cross-sectional study examined associations among procrastination, problematic Instagram Story use (PISU), and Instagram Story-related social media disorder (SMD) symptoms in adult Instagram users in Türkiye, and tested whether the data were statistically consistent with an indirect association through PISU. Participants were recruited online between October 2024 and February 2025. After eligibility and data-quality screening, the analytic sample comprised 476 adults aged 18-43 years (M = 24.39, SD = 5.42; 52.5% women). Procrastination was positively associated with PISU (r = 0.448), and both procrastination (r = 0.360) and PISU (r = 0.351) were positively associated with SMD symptoms (all p < .001). An observed-variable mediation analysis with HC3 robust standard errors and 5000 bootstrap samples yielded a positive indirect association (B = 0.055, bootstrap 95% CI [0.032, 0.079]; standardized indirect association = 0.107), while the direct association remained positive (B = 0.130, p < .001). Gender differences were not statistically significant, and age showed no significant linear association with any focal construct. A bootstrap heterotrait-monotrait ratio supported the empirical distinction between PISU and SMD symptoms (HTMT = 0.389, 95% CI [0.298, 0.475]). These findings are consistent with, but do not establish, the proposed temporal ordering. Longitudinal and experimental research is needed to distinguish dysregulated use, compensatory coping, and addiction-like symptoms and to test directional mechanisms.