SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT AND FEAR OF MISSING OUT: THE INDIRECT ROLE OF SELF-CONTROL AMONG PAKISTANI UNDERGRADUATES

Abstract

Social media has become embedded in the daily routines of undergraduate students, yet the psychological pathway linking habitual engagement to fear of missing out (FoMO) remains unclear. Drawing on the strength model of self-control and social cognitive theory of self-regulation, the present study tested whether self-control mediates the relationship between social media engagement and FoMO. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was used with 277 undergraduate students (175 women, 102 men; aged 17–25 years) recruited through convenience sampling from two universities in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Participants completed the Brief Self-Control Scale, the Fear of Missing Out Scale, and the Social Media Engagement Questionnaire. Self-control correlated negatively with FoMO (r = –.34, p < .001) and with social media engagement (r = –.28, p < .001), whereas the zero-order association between social media engagement and FoMO was negligible (r = .07, p = .272). Regression showed that self-control predicted FoMO (β = –.35, p < .001) but social media engagement did not (β = –.03, p = .583); together they explained 11.5% of the variance, F(2, 274) = 17.75, p < .001. Bootstrapped mediation (5,000 resamples) revealed a significant indirect effect through self-control, B = 0.07, 95% CI [0.03, 0.13], with a non-significant direct effect. Following Zhao et al. (2010), this constitutes indirect-only mediation: engagement relates to FoMO solely by way of diminished self-control. Findings identify self-regulatory capacity, rather than exposure volume, as the appropriate target for university interventions.