EMOTIONAL DYSREGULATION AND DIGITAL DEPENDENCE: UNRAVELING MENTAL HEALTH PATHWAYS, FEAR OF MISSING OUT AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION, WITHIN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY FRAMEWORK

Abstract

The exponential growth of social media use has intensified scholarly interest in the psychological mechanisms underlying digital dependence. Grounded in the Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I‑PACE) model (Brand et al., 2019) and Self‑Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), this study examined whether fear of missing out (FoMO) mediates the relationship between emotional dysregulation and digital dependence, and whether this pathway is moderated by gender, birth order, family system, and educational level. A cross‑sectional design was employed with a sample of young adults (N ≈ 350) who completed validated measures of emotional dysregulation, FoMO, and social media addiction/digital dependence.

Bivariate correlations indicated that emotional dysregulation was positively associated with both FoMO (r = .53, p < .001) and digital dependence (r = .48, p < .001), while FoMO correlated strongly with digital dependence (r = .59, p < .001), consistent with prior findings (Przybylski et al., 2013; Saladino et al., 2024). Mediation analysis revealed that FoMO partially mediated the dysregulation–dependence link (indirect effect B = 0.10, 95% CI [0.06, 0.15]), supporting FoMO’s role as a proximal cognitive‑affective driver of problematic online engagement (Quaglieri et al., 2022). Moderated mediation analyses showed that the FoMO → dependence path was stronger for females, later‑born individuals, participants from nuclear families, and those with lower educational attainment, aligning with social‑relational motivation theory (Muscanell & Guadagno, 2012), birth‑order socialization research (Sulloway, 1996), and digital literacy frameworks (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007).

The full moderated mediation model explained substantially more variance in digital dependence (R² = .42) than main effects alone (R² = .27), underscoring the value of conditional process modelling in clinical psychology. Findings highlight the need for targeted interventions that integrate emotion regulation training with FoMO‑specific cognitive restructuring, tailored to demographic and contextual risk profiles. This work advances theoretical integration of emotional, cognitive, and socio‑structural factors in the etiology of digital dependence and offers actionable insights for prevention and treatment