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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Individual and Social Behaviors
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1512535
This article is part of the Research Topic Regulation of Social Behaviors to the Environment View all 4 articles

Associations Between Social Networks, Messaging Apps, Addictive Behaviors, and Sleep Problems in Adolescents: The EHDLA Study

Provisionally accepted
María Navalón-González María Navalón-González 1José Montenegro-Espinosa José Montenegro-Espinosa 2Héctor Gutiérrez-Espinoza Héctor Gutiérrez-Espinoza 3Jorge Olivares-Arancibia Jorge Olivares-Arancibia 4Rodrigo Yáñez-Sepúlveda Rodrigo Yáñez-Sepúlveda 5Daniel Duclos-Bastías Daniel Duclos-Bastías 6Miriam Garrido-Miguel Miriam Garrido-Miguel 1Arthur Eumann Mesas Arthur Eumann Mesas 1José Francisco López-Gil José Francisco López-Gil 2*Estela Jiménez López Estela Jiménez López 1
  • 1 University of Castilla La Mancha, Cuenca, Spain
  • 2 University of the Americas, Quito, Ecuador
  • 3 Autonomous University of Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 4 University of the Americas (UDLA), Granados, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 5 Andres Bello University, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 6 Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile

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

    Objective: The current study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the relationships between social network (SN) use, messaging apps use, and addictive behaviors related to SNs, and sleep-related problems in a sample of Spanish adolescents.: This was a cross-sectional study using data from the Eating Healthy and Daily Life Activities (EHDLA) project, which involved adolescents aged 12-17 years from three secondary schools in Valle de Ricote (Murcia, Spain). A sample of 632 adolescents was studied. The use of SN (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok) or messaging applications (i.e., WhatsApp) was assessed via a scale including one item for each SN, in which adolescents were asked what type of SN they used and the usage profile of each SN. The Short Social Networks Addiction Scale-6 Symptoms (SNAddS-6S) was used to determine SN addictive behaviors. Generalized linear regression analyses with a negative binomial distribution were performed to determine the associations of SN use or SN addictive behaviors with sleep-related problems. These analyses were adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic level, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and adherence to the Mediterranean diet.Results: Higher SN use was related to greater presence of sleep-related problems (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.04; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01-1.07; p = 0.015).Additionally, the higher the score on the addictive behaviors toward SN use scale was, the more sleep-related problems were identified (PR = 1.15; 95% Cl 1.09 to 1.21; p < 0.001). Specifically, only the use of Twitter was significantly associated with sleeprelated problems (PR = 1.10; 95% Cl 1.01 to 1.21; p = 0.035). In terms of addictive behaviors related to social network use, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and conflict were significantly associated with sleep-related problems (mood modification:

    Keywords: Social network, Social media addiction, Addictive behavior, Sleep, Teenager

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 08 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Navalón-González, Montenegro-Espinosa, Gutiérrez-Espinoza, Olivares-Arancibia, Yáñez-Sepúlveda, Duclos-Bastías, Garrido-Miguel, Mesas, López-Gil and López. 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: José Francisco López-Gil, University of the Americas, Quito, Ecuador

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.