A Stress-Induced Digital Escapism Framework for Understanding the Link Between Stress and Problematic Social Media Use
Hwajin Yang, Frosch Y. X. Quek, Salin X. H. Yap, Germaine Y. Q. Tng, Gilaine Rui Ng · 2026
Read A Stress-Induced Digital Escapism Framework for Understanding the Link Between Stress and Problematic Social Media Use by Hwajin Yang, Frosch Y. X. Quek, Salin X. H. Yap, Germaine Y. Q. Tng, Gilaine Rui Ng (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13295697.txt.
Description
Hwajin Yang and co-authors set out a framework for how stress feeds heavy social media use, in a 2026 study. They call it Stress-Induced Digital Escapism. The idea runs in steps: outer demands stir bad feelings, bad feelings push weak ways of coping, and weak coping builds a wish to escape into feeds. Survey data from 238 people let the team test the chain.
The chain held. Outer demands linked to heavy use only through the steps in between: dark stress reactions, poor ways of handling feelings with others, such as venting and seeking comfort, and escape wishes. Checks against flipped models backed the order the team proposed. The framework gives one account of how stress turns scrolling into a habit that is hard to drop.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Hwajin Yang, Frosch Y. X. Quek, Salin X. H. Yap, Germaine Y. Q. Tng, Gilaine Rui Ng |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |