Predictive Relationship between Social Media Usage, Emotion Regulation and Dissociative Experiences among Undergraduate Students in Malaysia

Hisshamudin, Aiman Nabihah (2023) Predictive Relationship between Social Media Usage, Emotion Regulation and Dissociative Experiences among Undergraduate Students in Malaysia. Social Media Usage, Emotion Regulation and Dissociative Experiences. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Few studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between social media usage, emotion regulation, and dissociative experiences. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the level of dissociative experiences among undergraduate students, the top three used social media platforms among undergraduate students, and the predictive relationship between social media usage, emotion regulation, and dissociative experiences among undergraduate students in Malaysia. In this quantitative cross-sectional study, 100 undergraduate students (41 male and 59 female) were surveyed using a snowball sampling method, drawn from both public and private universities. Data were collected through a Google Form survey, encompassing participants' demographic details, the Social Media Usage Questionnaire (SMUQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and analyzed using SPSS version 27. Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression are utilized in this study. The findings revealed that all participants reported a low level of dissociation, with Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok being the most used social media platforms. Emotion regulation (specifically, difficulties in emotion regulation) was found to be a significant predictor of dissociative experiences and social media usage is not a significant predictor of dissociative experiences. These outcomes underscore the significance of implementing effective emotion regulation techniques to mitigate the risk of students experiencing dissociation. Keywords: social media usage, emotion regulation, dissociative experiences