Blurred Identity, Rising Distress: A Serial Mediation Approach to Social Media and Depression

This study examines a serial mediation framework to gain a deeper understanding of how social media use affects mental health. Many young people experience a sense of emotional overload from constant connectivity (i.e., digital stress), which may be one of the earliest signs of psychological strain, and the impact on self-concept clarity may further compound these effects. Thus, we examined how digital stress and self-concept clarity may serially mediate the relation between social media use and depressive symptoms. The study sample consisted of 995 Romanian participants aged 17 to 79 (<i>M</i> = 25.05, SD = 9.52; 63.22% female). Results suggested a positive association between digital stress and social media use and a negative association between self-concept clarity, digital stress, and depressive symptoms. Results also indicated a significant link between prolonged social media usage and digital stress, as well as a correlation between elevated digital stress levels and low self-concept clarity scores, which in turn, seemed to contribute to the development of depressive symptoms. However, the relation between digital stress and self-concept clarity did not fully account for the positive correlation between social media usage time and depressive symptoms. Thus, the mediation effect was incomplete, as the direct relationship between social media use and depressive symptoms persisted, remaining positive and statistically significant. We discuss these findings in terms of their practical implications for mitigating the effects of social media use on individuals' mental health, with a focus on the relationship between digital stress and self-concept clarity.