Currently accepted at: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 2, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 3, 2026 - May 29, 2026
Date Accepted: Jun 19, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
This paper has been accepted and is currently in production.
It will appear shortly on 10.2196/97014
The final accepted version (not copyedited yet) is in this tab.
Academic Stress, Family Relationships, and Social Media Use Disorder Among Turkish Middle School Students: Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study
ABSTRACT
We investigated the relationships between academic stress, family relationships, and social media use disorder (SMUD) among middle school students through the ecological systems perspective. We used mixed-methods sequential explanatory. In addition, structural equation modeling showed that academic stress had a significant direct impact on SMUD. Restrictive family relationships significantly mediated this relationship. The proposed model explained 42.6% of the variance in SMUD. Qualitative findings highlighted family patterns and coping and revealed how rigid parental control and limited emotional support reinforced restrictive family dynamics, which in turn further linked academic stress to SMUD. Present research extends Ecological Systems Theory to online behavior and establishes restrictive family relationships as key mediating mechanisms in SMUD development. These findings underscore the importance of family-based interventions that promote open communication and adaptive stress management strategies to mitigate the risk of SMUD.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.