Fear of Missing Out, Social Media Abuse, and Parenting Styles

Author

Kylie RichterFollow

Campus Location

Abilene Campus (Residential)

Date of Award

Spring 5-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Scott Perkins

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Cherisse Flanagan

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Richard Beck

Abstract

With the increasing rise in technology use, particularly engagement in social media, it is important for researchers to gain a better understanding of the usage patterns along with the antecedents and consequences of heavy social media usage. In addition to the rise in social media usage, a new anxiety driven phenomenon is storming the research world, FoMO (Fear of Missing Out). To date, there has been little empirical research on the relationship between social media usage and psychological adjustment. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between FoMO, social media abuse, and parenting styles. It is theorized that because FoMO is an anxiety-driven problem, it can lead individuals to the addiction or abuse of social media by engaging in safety behaviors that are similar to behaviors associated with abuse, dependence, or withdrawal, to the addiction. Previous research has shown a correlation between parenting styles and child social anxiety; therefore, it was theorized that parenting styles would be related to FoMO. Participants completed a 71-item questionnaire composed of six scales: FoMO, Social Media Engagement, Self-Esteem, Parenting Styles, and two Social Media Abuse scales. The questionnaire was deployed to middle school, high school, and college students (n = 661) with statistical evaluation of bivariate correlation and mean difference analyses to test study hypotheses. Results indicated that self-esteem was significantly negatively correlated with both FoMO and social media abuse, FoMO was significantly positively correlated with social media abuse, and neglectful parenting style had the highest mean value for self-reported FoMO.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Richter, Kylie, "Fear of Missing Out, Social Media Abuse, and Parenting Styles" (2018). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 81.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/81