Maartje Boer

CHAPTER 7 196 younger youth (Mérelle et al., 2017; Wartberg et al., 2020), and others show no age differences (Bányai et al., 2017; Ho et al., 2017). A possible explanation for these inconclusive findings is that there are subgroups of adolescents with different trajectories of problematic SMU, and that these subgroups were unevenly represented in the samples of previous studies. Predictors of Problematic SMU It has been proposed that adolescents with low subjective wellbeing and poor social competencies , such as low life satisfaction, low self-esteem, and poor competencies to form and maintain friendships, are sensitive to problematic SMU. SMU may be especially appealing for adolescents with these psychosocial vulnerabilities, because other than in offline encounters, online they can easily present themselves in a positive way. Consequently, they may develop a preference for online interaction over face-to-face and maladaptive cognitions about social media, such as the perception to only have a meaningful life on social media, which may lead to problematic SMU (Caplan, 2003; Davis, 2001). In addition, adolescents with low self-control , indicated by attention deficits or impulsivity, have limited ability to inhibit immediate impulses. Therefore, they may not be able to resist temptations and to regulate their SMU, which may make them sensitive to problematic SMU (Mérelle et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2013). However, these propositions lack a developmental perspective, because they do not describe how these psychosocial factors relate to trajectories of problematic SMU. That is, whether they increase the risk of, for example, persistently or temporarily high levels of problematic SMU. Identifying which psychosocial profiles increase the risk of following specific trajectories of problematic SMU may support the development of intervention and prevention programs aimed at problematic SMU that target adolescents' vulnerabilities. These programs are considered particularly relevant for those youth whose high levels of problematic SMU do not desist. Longitudinal research, under which studies that used data from the present study, examined associations between some of the abovementioned psychosocial factors and problematic SMU (Boer, Stevens, et al., 2020; Boer, Stevens, Finkenauer, De Looze, et al., 2021; Du et al., 2021; Li et al., 2018). Although these studies provided insight into the average association between