The Longitudinal Association Between Negative Life Events and Problematic Social Media Use Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of FoMO and the Moderating Role of Positive Parenting

Abstract

Negative life events are one of the risk factors leading to problematic social media use (PSMU) among Chinese college students, but the underlying mechanism between them remains unclear. Based on compensatory internet use theory, a moderated mediation model was examined, with two dimensions of fear of missing out (FoMO) considered as parallel mediators and positive parenting as a moderator. A total of 525 college students (57.3% females, Mage = 21.94, SDage = 1.16) participated in this three-wave longitudinal study (6 months apart). We investigated their negative life events at Time 1, FoMO at Time 2, positive parenting at Time 2 and PSMU at Time 3. The structural equation model results indicated that, after controlling for demographic variables, negative life events positively impacted students' PSMU directly and indirectly by increasing their fear of missing novel information and fear of missing social opportunities. Moreover, positive parenting moderated the mediating effect of fear of missing social opportunities but not fear of missing novel information. In conclusion, this study reflected the underlying mechanism linking negative life events to PSMU, supporting the stress-buffering model while highlighting the protective role of positive parenting.