Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 10, 2024
Date Accepted: Mar 5, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Loneliness and Problematic Media Use: A Meta-Analysis of Longitudinal Studies
ABSTRACT
While past research has established the association between loneliness and problematic media use, the direction of causality remains unclear. This meta-analysis investigates the longitudinal relationships between loneliness and problematic media use. Systematic searches in three online databases identified 26 longitudinal studies involving a total of 24,798 participants. Random-effects models revealed bidirectional relationships between loneliness and problematic media use. However, the effect sizes were weaker than anticipated when using beta coefficients as estimates of the longitudinal relationships. Subgroup analyses demonstrated stable results for beta coefficients across various study designs. This meta-analysis also highlights potential methodological limitations and provides recommendations for future research on longitudinal relationships.
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