Narcissism in Social Media, Fear of Missing Out, and Social Media Addiction among College Students: A Three-wave Longitudinal Study

This study explored the longitudinal relationships among narcissism in social media (NiSM), fear of missing out (FoMO), and social media addiction (SMA) among college students and the mediating role of FoMO in these associations using a three-wave longitudinal design. Data were collected using a three-wave design from 276 college students at Time 1 (T1) in October 2023, 271 students at Time 2 (T2) in April 2024, and 265 students at Time 3 (T3) in October 2024. The analyses were conducted using data from the 258 college students (57% female, M age = 21.17, SD = 1.84, range = 18-25) who participated in the study in all three time waves (both T1, T2, and T3). We conducted a three-wave cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) to investigate whether FoMO mediates the relationship between NiSM and SMA. This study found that both FoMO and NiSM can be significant predictors of SMA. Furthermore, the findings revealed that FoMO serves as a longitudinal mediator in the relationship between NiSM and SMA. These results highlight the importance of considering FoMO and NiSM when developing prevention and intervention programs to effectively address SMA among college students. The present study provided novel findings that enrich the empirical knowledge on social media addiction and hold significant theoretical and practical relevance.