I Can't Understand You, Because I Can't Understand Myself: The Interplay between Alexithymia, Excessive Social Media Use, Empathy, and Theory of Mind

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15260%2F23%3A73622860" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15260/23:73622860 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/448980" target="_blank" >https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/448980</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.31820/pt.32.3.8" target="_blank" >10.31820/pt.32.3.8</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

I Can't Understand You, Because I Can't Understand Myself: The Interplay between Alexithymia, Excessive Social Media Use, Empathy, and Theory of Mind

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Social media represent a relatively new phenomenon affecting the lives of people across the globe. Recently, the number of social media users reached billions, and this number increases every year. Previous studies indicated that excessive social media use may have adverse effects on mental and physical health. Therefore, it is important to explore what psychological factors may contribute to the excessive use of social media. It was found that social anxiety and alexithymia are robust predictors of excessive social media use. However, little is known about the role of empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) in excessive social media use. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of empathy and ToM in the relationship between alexithymia and social anxiety. Collectively, 1737 subjects participated in the study (M-age = 25.28, SDage = 10, Females: 60.83%). We assessed empathy, social anxiety, ToM, loneliness, and excessive social media use. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the mediating effect of empathy and ToM. It was revealed that there is a positive relationship between difficulty in identifying feelings (alexithymia) and social anxiety: B = 0.53 (95% CI [0.41 - 0.65], p &lt; .001). Moreover, a significant positive association was found between social anxiety and excessive social media use: B = 0.28, 95% CI [0.14 - 0.37], p &lt; 0.001. However, loneliness was unrelated to social media use. Similarly, there was no significant mediating effect of empathy and ToM on the link between difficulty in identifying feelings and social anxiety. Future research should examine the generalizability of our findings using different cultural/linguistic environments. The primary limitation of the study is the use of cross-sectional data which prevent to draw causal links between the explored relationships.

Název v anglickém jazyce

I Can't Understand You, Because I Can't Understand Myself: The Interplay between Alexithymia, Excessive Social Media Use, Empathy, and Theory of Mind

Popis výsledku anglicky

Social media represent a relatively new phenomenon affecting the lives of people across the globe. Recently, the number of social media users reached billions, and this number increases every year. Previous studies indicated that excessive social media use may have adverse effects on mental and physical health. Therefore, it is important to explore what psychological factors may contribute to the excessive use of social media. It was found that social anxiety and alexithymia are robust predictors of excessive social media use. However, little is known about the role of empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) in excessive social media use. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to examine the mediating effect of empathy and ToM in the relationship between alexithymia and social anxiety. Collectively, 1737 subjects participated in the study (M-age = 25.28, SDage = 10, Females: 60.83%). We assessed empathy, social anxiety, ToM, loneliness, and excessive social media use. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the mediating effect of empathy and ToM. It was revealed that there is a positive relationship between difficulty in identifying feelings (alexithymia) and social anxiety: B = 0.53 (95% CI [0.41 - 0.65], p &lt; .001). Moreover, a significant positive association was found between social anxiety and excessive social media use: B = 0.28, 95% CI [0.14 - 0.37], p &lt; 0.001. However, loneliness was unrelated to social media use. Similarly, there was no significant mediating effect of empathy and ToM on the link between difficulty in identifying feelings and social anxiety. Future research should examine the generalizability of our findings using different cultural/linguistic environments. The primary limitation of the study is the use of cross-sectional data which prevent to draw causal links between the explored relationships.

Druh

J_SC - Článek v periodiku v databázi SCOPUS

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Rok uplatnění

2023

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Psihologijske Teme

ISSN

1332-0742

e-ISSN

1849-0395

Svazek periodika

32

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

3

Stát vydavatele periodika

HR - Chorvatská republika

Počet stran výsledku

21

Strana od-do

555-575

Kód UT WoS článku

001140161200009

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85179307809