ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Culture and Communication
Path analysis model examining the relationship between Arab youth's follow-up activities on Instagram and their social skills development
Provisionally accepted
- Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study examined the impact of Instagram and exposure to videos published on the platform on users' social skills. Drawing on the social learning theory (SLT), this study compared Instagram's role in the development of social and communication skills among Gulf Arab and Egyptian youth. The results revealed that the indirect path of the intensity of exposure to Instagram had the strongest effect on acquiring social skills from the total path of 91.66% for the Egyptian group. In contrast, the total effect in the Gulf Arab group was predominantly shaped by the direct path (88.3%), which was higher than that of the Egyptian group. Instagram usage had a more immediate impact on social skills development among Gulf Arab youth. Conversely, the stronger indirect effect observed in the Egyptian group indicated that mediating factors, such as learning and communication processes, played a more significant role in influencing their social skills.
Keywords: instagram, Path analysis model, social learning theory, Social Media, Youth
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Osman. 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: Safa Osman
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.