Person, Affective, Cognitive, and Executive Dimensions Associated with Problematic Social Media Use, Internet Gaming Disorder, and Their Co-Occurrence in Young Adults

Background: Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU) and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) are online behaviors associated with adverse psychosocial outcomes in young adults. However, person, affective, cognitive, and executive correlates of these behaviors remain insufficiently examined. This study examined I-PACE (Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution) model dimensions associated with PSMU and IGD, and their co-occurrence in young adults from dimensional and categorical perspectives. Methods: A total of 1586 students (68.9% female; M = 20.42 years, SD = 2.41) completed self-report measures assessing PSMU, IGD, personality traits, emotion regulation difficulties, decision-making styles, and executive functioning. Results: Overall, 17.97% screened positive for PSMU, 16.02% for IGD, and 10.65% for both behaviors. In the entire sample, PSMU and IGD were both related to lower conscientiousness, difficulties in goal-directed behavior, non-acceptance of negative emotions, and emotional and executive control deficits. PSMU was additionally related to extraversion, limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies, and dependent decision-making style, whereas agreeableness, impulse control difficulties, and social behavior control deficits were related to IGD. From a categorical perspective, executive deficits were associated with higher PSMU symptomatology, whereas lower agreeableness and conscientiousness, greater difficulties in goal-directed behavior, and a lower tendency to use an intuitive decision-making style were related to higher IGD symptomatology. Among participants with co-occurring PSMU and IGD, lower agreeableness, lower openness to experience, and greater difficulties in goal-directed behavior were associated with higher PSMU and IGD symptoms. Dependent decision-making was additionally associated with higher PSMU symptoms. Furthermore, mean comparisons revealed that the PSMU and IGD co-occurring group showed higher levels of neuroticism, emotion dysregulation, spontaneous/avoidant decision-making styles, and executive, emotional, and social behavior control deficits than single-behavior groups. Conclusions: The findings suggest partially distinct patterns of association between person, affective, cognitive, and executive dimensions, depending on whether problematic online behaviors were considered from a dimensional or categorical perspective. These exploratory results require longitudinal replication and validation in clinical samples and in samples from other cultures, or from different developmental stages.