Social Identity, Social Media Use, and Mental Health in Adults: Investigating the Mediating Role of Cyberbullying Experiences and the Moderating Effects of Gender and Age

Purpose: Previous research points to a complex relation between social media use and mental health, with open questions remaining with respect to mediation pathways and potential sociodemographic moderators. The present research investigated the extent to which experiences of cyberbullying victimization mediate the link between greater social media use and poorer mental health in adults and whether such indirect effects are moderated by gender or age. Participants and Methods: As part of a larger study, US adults (N = 502) completed an online survey that included measures of degree of social media use, cyberbullying victimization, depression, anxiety, substance use, and sociodemographic characteristics including gender and age. Results: A series of moderated mediation models revealed a robust indirect effect of cyberbullying victimization on the relation between degree of social media use and mental health, such that greater social media use was associated with higher levels of cyberbullying victimization and greater cyberbullying victimization was associated with increased depression, anxiety, and likelihood of substance use. There was no evidence that the mediation effects varied between men and women. Age did, however, moderate the mediation effects for anxiety and likelihood of substance use, with stronger mediation effects emerging for younger compared to older adults. Conclusion: Our findings underscore the importance of empirical investigations that shed a more nuanced light on the complex relation between social media and mental health.