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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1452769
This article is part of the Research Topic Youth Mental Health, Particularly in Asian Populations View all 43 articles

The Impact of Social Media Addiction on the Negative Emotions of Adolescent Athletes: The Mediating Role of Physical Appearance Comparisons and Sleep

Provisionally accepted
Weilong Lin Weilong Lin 1Zhenyu Cen Zhenyu Cen 2Ying Chen Ying Chen 3*
  • 1 Guangzhou Sport University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 School of Physical Education and Sports Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
  • 3 Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Extensive use of social media is commonly associated with the development of social media dependency and amplification of adverse emotions among adolescent athletes. This study included a sample of 362 adolescent athletes (aged 14-21) participating in various sports events at training facilities in Guangdong and Hunan. Data collection was performed using the Social Media Addiction Scale, Body Appearance Comparison Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and path analysis were employed to investigate the impact of social media addiction on the negative emotions experienced by adolescent athletes. The findings suggest that social media addiction contributes directly to heightened negative emotions in adolescent athletes. In addition, physical appearance comparisons and sleep quality were identified as mediating factors that intensify the influence of social media addiction in terms of negative emotions. Consequently, it is recommended to underline the importance of mental health support for adolescent athletes, implement effective strategies for managing social media use, promote healthy body image perceptions, enhance sleep quality, and address negative emotions among adolescent athletes.

    Keywords: Adolescent athletes, Social media addiction, Negative emotions, Physical appearance comparison, sleep quality

    Received: 21 Jun 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lin, Cen and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ying Chen, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China

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