The Moderating Role of Self-esteem in the Relationship between Peer Pressure and Social Media Addiction among Adolescents in Lagos State

Abstract

Social media addiction has emerged as a significant public health concern among adolescents, with peer pressure identified as a critical social determinant. This study examined whether self-esteem moderates the relationship between peer pressure and social media addiction among in-school adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling technique was employed with a sample of 677 in-school adolescents in Lagos State. Participants completed standardized measures assessing peer pressure, self-esteem, and social media addiction. While the researchers hypothesized a direct relationship between peer pressure and adolescent social media addiction, the simple linear regression analysis produced an unexpected results, revealing an inverse relationship where peer pressure negatively predicted social media addiction (β = -.229, t = -6.116, p < .001), accounting for 5.2% of the variance (R² = .052). Hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that both peer pressure (β = -.126, t = -3.59, p < .001) and self-esteem (β = -.420, t = -11.94, p < .001) significantly predicted social media addiction in Model 1, collectively explaining 21.8% of variance (R² = .218, F = 93.96, p < .001). Self-esteem emerged as the strongest predictor of social media addiction. The introduction of the peer pressure and self-esteem interaction term in Model 2 yielded a statistically significant but practically small moderation effect (β = .546, t = 2.109, p = .035), accounting for only an additional 0.5% of variance (ΔR² = .005, F = 4.448, p < .001; R² = .223). while this suggests that selfesteem may play a modest moderating role in the relationship between peer pressure and social media addiction, the main effects of peer pressure and self esteem particularly the latter, appear to be more substansive in understanding adolescents social media addiction. The findings indicate that low self-esteem constitutes a key psychological factor associated with problematic social media use. However, the cross-sectional nature of this study limits causal inferences and generalizability of these results, it is recommended that education board should integrate social media literacy curriculum and self esteem enhancement programs. These interventions can educate adolescents about the potential negative aspects of social media use while building psychological resilience.