Social media use and physical activity among college students: the moderating roles of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression

Abstract

Background: Social media use has become increasingly prevalent among college students, raising questions about its relationship with physical activity and emotion regulation. However, evidence regarding these relationships remains inconsistent, and the potential moderating role of emotion-regulation strategies is not well established. Objectives: This study examined the association between social media use and physical activity and tested whether cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression moderated this association among college students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 192 undergraduate students from universities across Indonesia using purposive sampling. Data were collected using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and a social media use instrument. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, and moderation regression analysis in JASP. Results: Social media use was positively associated with cognitive reappraisal (rₛ = 0.199, p = 0.006) but was not significantly associated with physical activity (rₛ = 0.018, p = 0.808). Neither cognitive reappraisal nor expressive suppression significantly moderated the association between social media use and physical activity (p = 0.570 and p = 0.582, respectively).  Conclusion: Neither cognitive reappraisal nor expressive suppression significantly moderated the association between social media use and physical activity in this sample. These findings suggest that the relationship between social media use and physical activity may depend on other psychological, behavioural, and environmental factors that should be examined using longitudinal and multivariable research designs.