ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Media Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1583921
Caught in the Loop: The Role of Volitional Control in the FoMO and Social Media Addiction Cycle
Provisionally accepted
- Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
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This study investigates the bidirectional relationship between fear of missing out (FoMO) and social media addiction, with a specific focus on the mediating role of volitional control. The research explores whether this relationship operates through direct effects, indirect effects, or both. A total of 621 participants were surveyed using validated scales: the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (α = 0.974), the Trait-State Misplaced Anxiety Scale (α = 0.951), and the Volitional Control Questionnaire (α = 0.709). Data were collected via an online questionnaire, with 88.71% of responses deemed valid for analysis. Descriptive analysis, hierarchical regression analysis and mediation analysis using SPSS 26.0 and Amos were conducted. The findings reveal a significant positive correlation between FoMO and social media addiction, with FoMO influencing social media addiction both directly and indirectly via volitional control. Conversely, social media addiction impacts FoMO only through direct pathways. Volitional control partially mediates the effect of FoMO on social media addiction but does not mediate the reverse relationship. The findings offer valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for designing interventions targeting social media addiction. Future research should focus on more homogeneous sample groups and explore additional mediating or moderating variables in this relationship.
Keywords: Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Social media addiction, volitional control, Bidirectional relationship, Digital behavior
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang. 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: Yiheng Zhang, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
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