The moderating effects of executive functions: A multi-level analysis of daily stress and problematic social media use

Mixed findings on the relationship between daily stress and social media use suggest the presence of moderators that buffer this link. Previous longitudinal studies, with assessment intervals from 1 month to 1 year, may not accurately capture daily fluctuations in stress and social media use. To address this gap, we conducted a fine-grained, temporally sensitive 7-day daily-diary longitudinal study investigating the dynamic within-person and between-person associations between daily stress, problematic social media use, and objective screen time. Using a theory-driven approach, we examined whether executive functions (EF)—a set of cognitive processes crucial for goal-directed behaviors—moderate the link between daily stress and problematic social media use. Two hundred fifty-three college students completed daily measures of stress and problematic social media use and provided daily social media screen time using built-in applications. Participants also completed nine cognitive tasks measuring the three EF components: inhibition, updating, and shifting. Multilevel modeling revealed that participants’ average stress predicted higher levels of problematic social media use. Importantly, inhibition moderated the relation between daily stress and daily social media screen time, suggesting that individuals with greater inhibition better regulated their social media screen time in response to stress. Daily stress was not significantly related to both daily social media screen time or daily problematic social media use, and EF did not moderate the relation between daily stress and daily problematic social media use. These findings underscore the crucial protective role of inhibition in buffering stress-related increases in social media use.