Social Media Addiction and Academic Procrastination: Social Support as a Moderator and Indecisiveness as a Mediator

Abstract

There is a lack of comprehensive literature on the impact of social media addiction on academic procrastination, particularly in terms of social support as a moderator and indecisiveness as a mediator in Pakistan. The current study aims to fill this gap by investigating the effect of the predictor, social media addiction, on the outcome variable, academic procrastination, via the moderator, social support, and indecisiveness as a mediator among college and university students between the ages of 18 to 25, i.e., young adults. The study utilized a cross-sectional research design and purposive sampling technique to collect data from 254 participants, with the inclusion criteria being social media use for at least the last year, and participants must be enrolled in college or university. The questionnaires used in the study to assess the variables were the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, Procrastination Assessment Scale, Indecisiveness Scale, and the Social Support Scale (shorter version). The correlational analysis of the study shows a significant positive relationship between social media addiction, academic procrastination, and indecisiveness. In contrast, social media addiction has a non-significant negative association with social support. The Hayes process 4.1, model 4, shows a significant positive mediating role of indecisiveness between social media addiction and academic procrastination. The Hayes process 4.1, model 1, also indicates an important moderating role of social support between social media addiction and academic procrastination. The study concludes with implications and recommendations.