Social Media and Perceived Stress: The Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support

This study examined the relationship between social media addiction symptoms and perceived stress, with perceived social support as a possible mediator. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was used, involving 52 adult social media users aged 20 to 49 years. Data were collected using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Pearson correlation and mediation analysis with 10,000 bootstrap samples were conducted. Results showed a positive but statistically non-significant relationship between social media addiction symptoms and perceived stress (r = .226, p = .107). Social media addiction symptoms were negatively associated with perceived social support (r = -.333, p = .016), while perceived social support was negatively associated with perceived stress (r = -.380, p = .005). Although both individual mediation paths were statistically significant, the indirect effect was not significant, as its 95% confidence interval included zero. The findings highlight the relationship between perceived social support and psychological well-being but do not establish its mediating role between social media addiction symptoms and perceived stress. The small sample size and cross-sectional design limit the wider application of these results. Further research involving larger samples and longitudinal methods is recommended.