Social Media Usage Types and Adolescent Academic Performance: Unraveling the Mediating Roles of Materialism and School Burnout

Adolescents are increasingly exposed to materialistic values propagated on social media, and studies have identified a negative association between materialism and learning. However, limited research has examined how different types of social media use contribute to materialism and, in turn, affect learning outcomes. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study explored the relationships among different types of social media use (i.e., social, hedonic, and cognitive), materialism, school burnout, and academic performance. Survey data from 853 high school students were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that social and hedonic use were positively associated with materialism, whereas cognitive use was negatively associated with materialism. Additionally, materialism impaired academic performance through increased school burnout. These findings highlight the differential effects of social media use on materialism and learning outcomes, suggesting that promoting cognitive social media use may help mitigate materialism and school burnout, ultimately enhancing academic performance.