The Role of Need Satisfaction and Frustration in Moderating the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Stress Among University Students

Research on social media has rarely considered subjective need experiences and how they are related to stress. I hypothesized that need frustration during social media use would amplify the relationship between time spent on social media and stress, whereas need satisfaction during social media use would diminish the relationship. Students (N = 151; Mage = 19.36, SD = 3.77 years, female = 71.5%) completed two self-report surveys one-week apart. Hayes’ (2021) PROCESS macro was used to test moderation. Bivariate correlations revealed that need frustration during social media use was negatively related to stress (rTime1 = .36, rTime2 = .24) and time spent on social media (rTime1 = .30). Need satisfaction was negatively related to stress (rTime1 = -.33, rTime2 = -.24). No significant moderation results were found for need satisfaction (p = .21) and frustration (p = .08). Further research is needed to clarify potential methodological issues that may have contributed to null results.