Connecting Internalizing Complaints and Motivations for Instagram Use: A Bayesian Network Approach

Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms worldwide and its impact on mental health has become a major research topic. While many studies focus on frequency or duration of use, little is known about the role of motivations for using Instagram in relation to internalizing complaints such as depression, anxiety, and stress. The present study investigated how different motivations and intensity of Instagram use relate to internalizing complaints in young adults. A total of 459 participants aged 18 to 35 years completed questionnaires measuring depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms, five motivations for using Instagram (social interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism, and peeking), and three intensity-of-use dimensions (persistence, boredom, and overuse). Bayesian network analyses were used to model conditional dependencies, and Directed Acyclic Graphs were used to explore potential causal pathways between Instagram motivations, intensity-of-use metrics, and internalizing complaints. Results indicated that internalizing complaints were not directly linked to intensity of use, yet had clear associations with specific motivations. Depressive symptoms were negatively associated with social interaction motives and positively associated with escapism. Exploratory causal modelling suggested that higher internalizing complaints may increase the motivation to use Instagram as a form of escapism. These findings underscore the importance of considering motivational factors, rather than only time or frequency, in understanding the complex relationship between Instagram use and mental health.