Loneliness mediates the association between addictive social media use and mental health in university students in Germany and Israel

Achdut N, Refaeli T (2021) An ethnocultural perspective on loneliness in young adulthood: a population-based study in Israel. Sociol Health Illn 43(5):1154–1174

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Amsalem D, Haim-Nachum S, Lazarov A et al (2025) The effects of war-related experiences on mental health symptoms of individuals living in conflict zones: a longitudinal study. Sci Rep 15(1):889

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

Andreassen CS, Pallesen S, Griffiths MD (2017) The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: findings from a large national survey. Addict Behav 64:287–293

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Apaolaza V, Hartmann P, D’Souza C et al (2019) Mindfulness, compulsive mobile social media use, and derived stress: the mediating roles of self-esteem and social anxiety. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw 22(6):388–396

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ, van Ijzendoorn MH (2024) Anything goes for participant, patient and public involvement in youth mental health research. JCPP Advances 4(4):e12258

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Balcerowska JM, Sawicki AJ (2022) Which aspects of narcissism are related to social networking sites addiction? The role of self-enhancement and self-protection. Pers Individ Differ 190:111530

Article  Google Scholar 

Bantjes J, Hunt X, Stein DJ (2022) Public health approaches to promoting university students’ mental health: a global perspective. Curr Psychiatry Rep 24(12):809–818

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Baptista MN, Franco VR, Bonfá-Araujo B, et al. (2025) Digital Addiction, Depression, and Suicide. Digital Addictions: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Behavioral Addictions and Digital Media. Springer, pp.163-175.

Benke C, Autenrieth LK, Asselmann E et al (2023) One year after the COVID-19 outbreak in Germany: long-term changes in depression, anxiety, loneliness, distress and life satisfaction. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 273(2):289–299

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Berry JW (1989) Introduction to methodology. In: Triandis H and Berry JW (eds) Handbook of cross-cultural psychology Boston: Allyn & Bacon, pp.1-28.

Beutel ME, Klein EM, Brähler E et al (2017) Loneliness in the general population: prevalence, determinants and relations to mental health. BMC Psychiatry 17:1–7

Article  Google Scholar 

Bonsaksen T, Ruffolo M, Price D et al (2023) Associations between social media use and loneliness in a cross-national population: do motives for social media use matter? Health Psychol Behav Med 11(1):2158089

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J (2024) The “Vicious Circle of addictive Social Media Use and Mental Health” Model. Acta Psychol 247:104306

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Balcerowska JM, Precht L-M et al (2023) Positive mental health mediates the association between insomnia symptoms and addictive social media use in Germany and Poland. Comput Hum Behav 143:107676

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Margraf J (2023) Less sense of control, more anxiety, and addictive social media use: cohort trends in German university freshmen between 2019 and 2021. Curr Res Behav Sci 4:100088

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Margraf J (2024) From fear of missing out (FoMO) to addictive social media use: the role of social media flow and mindfulness. Comput Human Behav 150:107984

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Rohmann E, Bierhoff H-W et al (2019) Relationships between addictive Facebook use, depressiveness, insomnia, and positive mental health in an inpatient sample: a German longitudinal study. J Behav Addict 8(4):703–713

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Rohmann E, Bierhoff H-W et al (2019) The relationship between daily stress, social support and Facebook addiction disorder. Psychiatr Res 276:167–174

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Schillack H, Margraf J (2020) Tell me why are you using social media (SM)! Relationship between reasons for use of SM, SM flow, daily stress, depression, anxiety, and addictive SM use–an exploratory investigation of young adults in Germany. Comput Human Behav 113:106511

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Ströse F, Schillack H et al (2020) Less Facebook use–more well-being and a healthier lifestyle? An experimental intervention study. Comput Hum Behav 108:106332

Article  Google Scholar 

Brailovskaia J, Swarlik VJ, Grethe GA et al (2022) Experimental longitudinal evidence for causal role of social media use and physical activity in COVID-19 burden and mental health. J Public Health 31:1885–1898

Article  Google Scholar 

Brand M, Wegmann E, Stark R et al (2019) The interaction of person-affect-cognition-execution (I-PACE) model for addictive behaviors: update, generalization to addictive behaviors beyond internet-use disorders, and specification of the process character of addictive behaviors. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 104:1–10

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Brand M, Young KS, Laier C et al (2016) Integrating psychological and neurobiological considerations regarding the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders: an Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 71:252–266

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Burrows K, Denckla CA, Hahn J et al (2024) A systematic review of the effects of chronic, slow-onset climate change on mental health. Nat Ment Health 2:228–243

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Charles NE, Strong SJ, Burns LC et al (2021) Increased mood disorder symptoms, perceived stress, and alcohol use among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Res 296:113706

Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

DataReportal (2025a) Digital 2025: Germany. Available at: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-germany.

DataReportal (2025b) Digital 2025: Israel. Available at: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-israel.

DataReportal (2025c) Global Social Media Statistics. Available at: https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-state-of-social.

Davis CG, Goldfield GS (2025) Limiting social media use decreases depression, anxiety, and fear of missing out in youth with emotional distress: a randomized controlled trial. Psychol Pop Media 14(1):1–11

Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Di Pietro G (2023) The impact of Covid-19 on student achievement: evidence from a recent meta-analysis. Educ Res Rev 39:100530

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Griffiths MD (2005) A ‘components’ model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework. J Subst Use 10(4):191–197

Article  Google Scholar 

Habihirwe P, Porovecchio S, Bramboiu I et al (2018) Depression, anxiety and stress among college students in three European countries. Eur J Public Health 28(suppl_4):cky214-026

Article  Google Scholar 

Hall JA (2025) Loneliness and social media. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1543(1):5–16

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Hamdan S, Guz T, Zalsman G (2025) The clinical sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic: loneliness, depression, excessive alcohol use, social media addiction, and risk for suicide ideation. Arch Suicide Res 29(1):238–251

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Hawkley LC, Buecker S, Kaiser T et al (2022) Loneliness from young adulthood to old age: explaining age differences in loneliness. Int J Behav Dev 46(1):39–49

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Hayes AF (2021) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. The Guilford Press, New York

Google Scholar 

Horigian VE, Schmidt RD, Feaster DJ (2021) Loneliness, mental health, and substance use among US young adults during COVID-19. J Psychoactive Drugs 53(1):1–9

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Huang C (2022) A meta-analysis of the problematic social media use and mental health. Int J Soc Psychiatry 68(1):12–33

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Hunt M, All K, Burns B et al (2021) Too much of a good thing: who we follow, what we do, and how much time we spend on social media affects well-being. J Soc Clin Psychol 40(1):46–68

Article  Google Scholar 

Hurley EC, Williams IR, Tomyn AJ et al (2024) Social media use among Australian university students: understanding links with stress and mental health. Comput Human Behav Rep 14:100398

Article  Google Scholar 

IBM Corp. (2024) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 29.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.

Israel Internet Association (2024) Social Media and Digital Platform Use in Israel. Available at: https://en.isoc.org.il/data-and-statistics/social-media-and-digital-platforms-use-in-israel-2023-2024.

Kaim A, Tov MS, Kimhi S et al (2024) A longitudinal study of societal resilience and its predictors during the Israel-Gaza war. Appl Psychol Health Well-Being 16(3):1479–1496

Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Comments (0)

No login
gif