Clarifying the relationship between insecure attachment and problematic social media use across platforms: a network analysis.

Background: Despite evidence suggesting that insecure attachment is a significant risk factor for Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU), there remains a lack of comprehensive studies exploring this relationship, and a unified understanding of its role has yet to be established.

Methods: We employed network analysis to construct an integrated model for examining the complex interrelations between negative emotions, trait and state attachment, motives, and PSMU across three platforms (i.e., WeChat, Sina Weibo, and TikTok), as well as for identifying potential mediating variables between attachment and PSMU. Data were collected from 685 young adults via online self-reported questionnaires.

Results: We found that negative emotions are positively correlated with insecure trait and state attachment but have a negligible direct relationship with PSMU. The conformity motive and state attachment security emerged as important central nodes when measured by strength, closeness, and betweenness. Moreover, attachment states and motives were found to be clustered. Such strong interrelationships were also evident between insecure attachment and PSMU, while trait attachment anxiety and avoidance were observed to be related to PSMU across various platforms.

Conclusions: Our findings promote a deeper understanding of the relationship between insecure attachment and PSMU from a cross-platform perspective and offer novel insights into the mechanisms underlying their co-occurrence, which may guide the development of effective interventions for healthier social media engagement.