Social Identity, Social Media Use, and Mental Health in Adults: Investigating the Mediating Role of Cyberbullying Experiences and the Moderating Effects of Gender and Age.

Purpose: Previous research points to a complex relation between social media use and mental health, with open questions remaining with respect to mediation pathways and potential sociodemographic moderators. The present research investigated the extent to which experiences of cyberbullying victimization mediate the link between greater social media use and poorer mental health in adults and whether such indirect effects are moderated by gender or age.

Participants And Methods: As part of a larger study, US adults ( = 502) completed an online survey that included measures of degree of social media use, cyberbullying victimization, depression, anxiety, substance use, and sociodemographic characteristics including gender and age.