In the modern world social media has become an integral part of everyday life of adolescents. However, their problematic use and cyberbullying are an increasing issue. Understanding which factors are associated with the vulnerability for this problematic online behaviour remains a gap in the literature. The purpose of our study was to explore under which social and personality dispositions as well as emotional conditions are adolescents vulnerable for problematic social media behaviours. Furthermore, we researched the possibility of explaining the phenomena through general strain theory, based on which we developed a proposed model where perceived social support (from family and friends) and self-efficacy directly as well as indirectly via emotions (anxiety and emotional well-being) predict less symptoms of problematic social media use and less cyberbullying perpetration. Data was collected in the Health behaviour of school children study from 2022, which includes 8638 school children and adolescents aged 11, 13, 15 and 17 years old. Data was analysed using structural equation modelling. Results showed good fit of the data to the model of general strain theory. Significant direct and indirect effects were shown for family social support and self-efficacy, whereas friend social support showed a significant effect only on well-being. Anxiety was an important mediator, where higher family social support and self-efficacy predict lowed anxiety and partly through this lower problematic online behaviour. Friend social support significantly predicted only emotional well-being, which did not play a mediatory role between family social support and problematic behaviour as well as between self-efficacy and problematic behaviour. Results support general strain theory, where strain (insufficient family social support) and perceived ability of effective coping (self-efficacy) directly and indirectly via negative emotion (anxiety) predict problematic behaviour (problematic social media use and cyberbullying perpetration). With this, family social support and self-efficacy are important protective factors and offer pathways to prevention. These findings deepen our understanding of problematic behaviour on social media, where the need for a holistic approach was supported. Both social environment and internal psychological processes were shown to be important.
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