ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Insecure attachment and problematic social media use: the chain mediating role of social support and social anxiety
Provisionally accepted
Miaomiao Zeng1
Liangrong Huang2*- 1Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, China
- 2Jilin University, Changchun, China
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
Background: The prevalence of problematic social media use among college students has reached levels that constitute a public health concern. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between insecure attachment (attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) and problematic social media use, while exploring the potential mediating roles of social support and social anxiety. Methods: The study utilized the Intimacy Experience Scale, the Interaction Anxiety Scale, the Social Support Scale, and the Problematic Social Media Use Scale to investigate 454 college (Mage=20.33, SD=2.15, 74.2% female). Results: The results showed that both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were positively correlated with problematic social media use. The results of the chain mediation model indicated that both social support and social anxiety independently mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and problematic social media use. Furthermore, social support and social anxiety acted as chain mediators between attachment anxiety and problematic social media use. A similar chain mediation pathway was identified for attachment avoidance, whereby social support and social anxiety also served as sequential mediators. Conclusion: These findings offer new insights for the intervention and treatment of problematic social media use. The implications of the results are discussed.
Keywords: Attachment anxiety, Attachment avoidance, Insecure attachment, Problematic social media use, social anxiety, social support
Received: 09 Dec 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zeng and Huang. 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: Liangrong Huang
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.