The Relationship Between Cumulative Ecological Risk And Problematic Social Network Use Among College Students

Problematic social network use is a phenomenon caused by long-term intense immersion in social network platforms,which brings psychological and physical discomfort to individuals.It is a transition state from normal to pathological social network use that can predict social network addiction.Previous studies have found that family,school and peers play a critical role in problematic social network use,but most studies were conducted from a single perspective.Based on the theory of biological ecology,this study explored the effects of multiple risk factors on problematic social network use among college students from the viewpoint of cumulative ecological risk,and explores the intrinsic influence mechanisms between the relationship of the two.This study adopted the cumulative ecological risk questionnaire,future time perspective questionnaire,self-control scale and adolescents’ problematic mobile social network use assessment questionnaire to initially explore the current status of problematic social network use among college students and to analyze the differences in problematic social network use among college students in terms of grade,gender,place of birth,whether they are the only child and whether they are single-parent family.This study explored the relationship between cumulative ecological risk and problematic social network use among college students,as well as the mediating effect of future time insight and the moderating effect of self-control,so as to put forward some countermeasures and suggestions for preventing problematic social network use among college students from the perspective of bio-ecology.A total of 1203 questionnaires were distributed and 1076 questionnaires were collected.Correlation analysis,regression analysis and moderated mediation analysis were conducted.The results are as follows:(1)College students’ problematic social network use differed significantly by place of origin and whether they are single-parent families;cumulative ecological risk differed significantly by gender,grade,place of origin,whether they are single-parent families,and whether they are the only children;future time insight differed significantly by place of origin,whether they are single-parent families,and whether they are only children;and self-control differed significantly by gender,place of origin and whether they are a single parent family.(2)There is a significant negative correlation between cumulative ecological risk and future time insight,a significant negative correlation between future time insight and problematic social networks use,and a significant positive correlation between cumulative ecological risk and problematic social networks use.(3)The future time insight of college students partially mediates the relationship between cumulative ecological risk and problematic social network use.(4)Self-control plays a significant moderating role in the direct path between cumulative ecological risk and problematic social network use.Simple effect analysis shows that with the increase of self-control,the positive effect of cumulative ecological risk on problematic social network use decreases.Self-control significantly moderates the first half of the mediating pathway of the model of cumulative ecological risk--future time insight--problematic social network use.Simple effects analysis finds that with the increase of self-control,the negative effect of cumulative ecological risk on future time insight is weakened.(5)In the impact of cumulative ecological risk on problematic social network use of college students,future time insight plays a mediating role and self-control plays a moderating role,showing a moderated mediating model.