(PS3-55) Examining the Relationships Between Social Media Use Constructs and Sleep Health in Hispanic University Emerging Adults

Research has observed that greater social media use and addiction are related to poor sleep health (Bhat et al., 2018; Wong et al., 2020). Less research has investigated how other novel social media constructs such as nighttime in-bed social media use, social media self-control failure (Du et al., 2018), and emotional investment in social media (Jenkins-Guarnieri et al., 2013) relate to sleep health. Further investigation of these associations in Hispanic emerging adults is vital as Hispanics may suffer from sleep disparities (Roncoroni et al., 2022) and emerging adults are using social media at striking rates (Auxier & Anderson, 2021). Thus, the present study assessed how five distinct social media use constructs relate to sleep health in Hispanic university emerging adults.

Hispanic university emerging adults (n=358) from a Hispanic Serving Institution (M_age=20.11, SD=1.79; 81.8% female) were recruited via a secure web-based recruitment system. After signing an electronic consent form, participants completed a survey assessing demographics, overall social media use frequency, nighttime in-bed social media use, social media addiction, social media self-control failure, emotional investment in social media, and sleep quality. In one hierarchical multiple linear regression with sleep quality as the dependent variable, control variables (i.e., age, sex) were entered in Step 1, overall social media use frequency in Step 2, nighttime in-bed social media use in Step 3, emotional investment in social media in Step 4, social media self-control failure in Step 5, and social media addiction in Step 6.

The full model assessing sleep quality was statistically significant, (F_(7,329)=6.85, R²=.13, p< .001); poorer sleep quality was associated with greater levels of social media self-control failure (b=.14, p=.029) and social media addiction (b=.23, p< .001). In Step 4 though, greater emotional investment in social media was associated with poorer sleep quality (b=.17, p=.002); this association disappeared once social media self-control failure was entered. From these results, one serial mediation model was conducted which indicated that emotional investment in social media was indirectly associated with poor sleep quality through both social media self-control failure and social media addiction (b=.03, 95%CI: .01, .06). This was a complete mediation as the direct association between emotional investment in social media and poor sleep quality was not significant (b=.04, p=.540).

Findings suggest that Hispanic emerging adults with pre-existing sleep problems may use social media problematically to cope with poor sleep, or that using social media problematically may replace sleep in which one may stay up throughout the night using social media resulting in poor sleep health. Moreover, serial mediation analyses suggest being emotionally connected to social media may place one at risk for problematic social media use and in turn poor sleep quality. However, the cross-sectional design of the present study requires future prospective studies to assess temporality. Developing interventions that target how one can reduce problematic social media use that occurs before bedtime and/or in-bed seems prudent.