Social Media Addiction Moderates the Relationship between Interpersonal Isolation and Suicidal Ideation among Undergraduates

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to examine the relationship between interpersonal isolation and suicidal ideation and to ascertain whether social media addiction moderates this relationship. 302 undergraduate students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria participated in the study. Their gender comprised of boys (133, 44%) and girls (159, 56%) and their ages ranged from 19 to 27, Mean age 20.71 and Standard Deviation of 1.53. The data were analyzed with Moderated multiple regression. The results indicate that interpersonal isolation positively and significantly predicted suicidal ideation, but social media addiction did not predict suicidal ideation. However, social media addiction moderated the relationship between interpersonal isolation and suicide ideation. As more youths seemed to prefer cyber community provided by social media as an escape from their daily challenges, it is evidenced that such move may likely compound their existing problems if they do not seek appropriate help.