I rely on a little help from my friends: the effect of interpersonal and intrapersonal emotion regulation on the relationship between FOMO and problematic internet use

Abstract

Background

This study investigated the role of emotion regulation in relation to the links between fear of missing out (i.e., FOMO) and two components of problematic internet use: problematic social media use and doomscrolling.

Methods

Participants ( N = 603, M _age = 30.41, SD _age = 7.64; 49.1% male-identifying) completed measures of fear of missing out, intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation, and problematic social media use, and doomscrolling. A parallel mediation model was tested to examine the nature of the associations between fear of missing out, intrapersonal, and interpersonal emotion regulation, in accounting for variance in the outcome measures.

Results

Analyses revealed that the effect of fear of missing out on problematic social media use was fully mediated by both intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation. In contrast, the effect on doomscrolling was fully mediated by intrapersonal emotion regulation only.

Conclusions

Findings clarify the role of emotion regulation in explaining the relationship between fear of missing out and two types of problematic internet use, indicating a need to consider individual differences in emotion regulation in an evolving social media landscape.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-024-05834-9.