Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Matt Judah

Committee Member

Scott Eidelman

Second Committee Member

Chris Ditzfield

Abstract

Social media use (SMU) has grown rapidly in recent years, alongside the rate of social anxiety. Plenty of research has been previously conducted exploring the relationship between SMU and social anxiety, as well as potential motivations for using social media which may explain the recent incline in usage. However, this study combines the two relationships together to test the association between social anxiety and problematic SMU as well as to investigate motives of SMU as potential mediators of problematic SMU. Problematic social media usage, social anxiety, passive vs active SMU, and four different motives of SMU were all looked at.  Undergraduates from the University of Arkansas (n = 183) completed an online questionnaire, primarily consisting of questions from other measures relevant to social media usage, social anxiety, and social media use motives. It was found that social anxiety was positively correlated with problematic social media use, active SMU, and each of the four motives. Additionally, indirect effects of social anxiety on SMU through three of the four motives was shown, indicating that both active SMU and social media use motives can be used to explain, at least in part, how social anxiety is related to problematic social media use. Future studies should include fear of negative evaluation, as it plays a large role in social anxiety and could be more associated with motives of SMU. More research should also be done as some of the results contradicted both our hypotheses set forth and some past research. research should be done when interpreting the results and applying them to future studies.

Keywords

Social anxiety; Problematic social media use; Social media use motives; Undergraduate students; Passive and active social media use

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