“Don’t Leave me Behind!” Problematic Internet Use and Fear of Missing Out Through the Lens of Epistemic Trust in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

The present study investigates the association between Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and Problematic Internet Use (PIU) in a sample of 358 cisgender emerging adults (74.58% females assigned at birth; Mage = 25.02, SD = 2.60; age range: 18–29 years), with a specific focus on the roles of various stances of Epistemic Trust, including Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity. The aim is to explore the complexities of these relationships and their implications for the psychological well-being of this population. We computed a mediation model to examine the relationships among PIU as the dependent variable, FoMO as the predictor, and Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity as the mediating factors. Covariates such as age, gender, and sexual orientation were also considered in the analysis. The results revealed significant indirect effects for both Mistrust and Credulity. Specifically, higher levels of FoMO were associated with increased Mistrust and Credulity, leading to greater PIU. In contrast, the indirect effect of Trust was not significant. Also, FoMO had a direct effect on PIU. The results highlight the importance of considering Mistrust and Credulity as potential risk factors for Internet addiction in emerging adults. These findings have practical implications for clinical practice, psychological assessment, and intervention strategies, emphasizing the need to address FoMO and its associated vulnerabilities within different therapeutic settings. By doing so, mental health professionals can better support the psychological well-being of emerging adults and assist them in navigating the challenges inherent to this crucial developmental stage.

Iranian adaptation of the Epistemic Trust, Mistrust, and Credulity Questionnaire (ETMCQ): Validity, reliability, discriminant ability, and sex invariance

“…A study partly using the current dataset also demonstrated that, in predicting mentalizing and related constructs, ET has no‐to‐little incremental validity over and above EM and EC (Asgarizadeh, Hunjani, et al., 2023 ). These findings are consistent with a large body of evidence (Benzi, Carone, et al., 2023 ; Benzi, Fontana, et al., 2023 ; Campbell et al., 2021 ; Kampling et al., 2022 , 2024 ; Liotti, Milesi, et al., 2023 ; Tanzilli et al., 2022 ). One possible explanation for this is that both extremely high and extremely low scores on ET may indicate epistemic disruptions.…”

“…(2021), who found similar patterns for ET and EM but also significant differences for EC; partially congruent with Benzi, Fontana et al. (2023) and Riedl, Rothmund et al. (2023), who found similar patterns but only for ET; and inconsistent with Liotti, Milesi et al.…”

“…We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ETMCQ in the non‐Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD; Henrich et al., 2010 ) context of Iran, as the limited inclusion of non‐WEIRD populations in social psychology research may hinder the development of a universally applicable definition of ET. Specifically, we intended to proceed with the following aims and hypotheses: applying exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to test the factorial structure, with the hypothesis that our findings would replicate the theoretically established three‐dimensional model; evaluating the criterion‐related validity by examining associations among ET, EM, EC, and relevant constructs (i.e., mindfulness, perspective‐taking, and the umbrella concept of mentalizing; attachment insecurities; emotion dysregulation; and BPD traits), anticipating strong associations for EM and EC, but not for ET, in‐line with previous findings; examining the internal consistency of the three ETMCQ subscales, hypothesizing that EM would exhibit unacceptable results, whereas ET and EC would demonstrate satisfactory results; exploring the discriminant ability of the subscales in identifying individuals with positive and negative screens for BPD, expecting discriminant ability for EM and EC, but not for ET; testing the measurement invariance across sexes, guided by the hypothesis that sex invariance would be established due to the seemingly unbiased item formulations; and analyzing associations between sociodemographic variables and the three epistemic stances, with hypotheses aligned with previous research (for the three subscales, the presence of cross‐gender differences and insignificant or weak associations with age, level of education, marital status, and employment status; Benzi, Fontana, et al., 2023 ; Campbell et al., 2021 ; Liotti, Milesi, et al., 2023 ; Riedl, Rothmund, et al., 2023 ; Tanzer et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Nonetheless, the resulting structure showed an acceptable fit in subsequent CFA. Second, despite inconclusive evidence regarding the criterion‐related validity of ET, most studies indicate nonsignificant or negligible associations between ET and relevant constructs (Benzi, Carone, et al., 2023 ; Benzi, Fontana, et al., 2023 ; Campbell et al., 2021 ; Kampling et al., 2022 , 2024 ; Liotti, Milesi, et al., 2023 ; Tanzilli et al., 2022 ), with a minority substantiating its validity (Liotti, Fiorini Bincoletto, et al., 2023 ; Riedl et al., 2024 ; Riedl, Rothmund, et al., 2023 ), and a handful of investigations presenting mixed findings (Brauner et al., 2023 ; De Coninck et al., 2023 ; Hauschild et al., 2023 ; Parolin et al., 2023 ). Third, although good test–retest reliability was found for all three subscales, the majority of the findings demonstrated questionable internal consistency for EM (see Table 1 ).…”