Addictive Behaviors 106 (2020) 106360

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Addictive Behaviors
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/addictbeh

Examining bi-directionality between Fear of Missing Out and problematic T

smartphone use. A two-wave panel study among adolescents
⁎
Gianluca Lo Cocoa, , Laura Salernoa, Vittoria Franchinab, Antonino La Tonaa, Maria Di Blasia,
Cecilia Giordanoa
a
University of Palermo, Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 15, 90128 Palermo, Italy
b
Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

H I GH L IG H T S

• AFoMO
two-wave cross-lagged panel design was tested with 242 adolescents.
• No cross-lagged
and problematic smartphone use (PSU) were related at cross-sectional level.
• Causal links between
associations between FoMO and PSU were longitudinally supported.
• FoMO and PSU need to be examined across different time lags.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Background: In recent years, the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) construct has been the object of growing attention
Fear of Missing Out in digital technology research with previous studies finding support for the relationship between FoMO and
Smartphone addiction problematic smartphone use (PSU) among adolescents and young adults. However, no previous studies clarified
Longitudinal modeling the causal link between FoMO and PSU using a longitudinal design.
Adolescents
Methods: An auto-regressive, cross-lagged panel design was tested by using a longitudinal dataset with two
Autoregressive cross-lagged panel
waves of data collection (T0 and T1, one year apart). Participants included two hundred and forty-two ado-
Emotional regulation
lescents (109 males and 133 females), with a mean age of 14.16 years, who filled out the Fear of Missing Out
scale (FoMOs) and the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS). Moreover, participants filled out the Difficulties in
Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), at the first time-point of data collection.
Results: The findings of the study show that FoMO (both FoMO-Fear and FoMO-Control subscales) and PSU are
positively related at both time-points (i.e. at a cross-sectional level). However no cross-lagged associations be-
tween them were longitudinally supported. Females and older adolescents show higher FoMO-Fear at T1.
Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest caution when causal links between FoMO and PSU are
inferred.

1. Introduction is considered an inability to regulate one’s use of the mobile phone and
there is evidence that it might have detrimental effects on an in-
Smartphones have become a fundamental part of daily life and dividual’s well-being (De-Sola Gutiérrez, Rodríguez de Fonseca, &
nearly everybody, across different age groups, goes online daily and Rubio, 2016). More specifically, high rates of PSU have been reported
engages in browsing, communicating and gaming. Although smart- among adolescents (Haug et al., 2015; Fırat et al., 2018), as well as a
phones are undoubtedly helpful (e.g. allowing continuous access to number of associations with indications of poor mental health including
information from almost everywhere), their widespread use has lead depression and anxiety, poor sleep, low self-esteem and lower levels of
researchers to focus attention on a maladaptive use, frequently defined physical activity (Billieux, 2012; Emirtekin et al., 2019; Elhai, Dvorak,
as Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU; Panova & Carbonell, 2018). PSU Levine, & Hall, 2017; Kara, Baytemir, & Inceman-Kara, 2019).

⁎
Corresponding author at: University of Palermo, Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 15, 90128,
Palermo, Italy. Tel.: +39 09123897725.
E-mail addresses: gianluca.lococo@unipa.it (G. Lo Coco), laurasalerno81@hotmail.com (L. Salerno), vittoria.franchina923005@gmail.com (V. Franchina),
latona.antonino@libero.it (A. La Tona), maria.diblasi@unipa.it (M. Di Blasi), cecilia.giordano@unipa.it (C. Giordano).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106360
Received 18 January 2020; Received in revised form 16 February 2020; Accepted 18 February 2020
Available online 22 February 2020
0306-4603/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
G. Lo Coco, et al. Addictive Behaviors 106 (2020) 106360

Recently, experts have drawn attention to the Fear of Missing Out circe (Oberst et al., 2017) and some recent findings have shown that
(FoMO) as a variable which can play a role in PSU. FoMO is a particular limiting the time spent on social media can decrease FoMO anxiety
kind of anxiety that arises from a person’s fear of missing out on re- (Hunt, Marx, Lipson, & Young, 2018). Thus, it is possible that we may
warding social experiences that others might be having and from which find support for both the prospective associations between FoMO and
one is absent (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013). High PSU.
levels of FOMO might indicate poor social relatedness, which is linked
to emotional dysregulation and poor well-being (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 1.2. Aims and hypotheses of the current study
Przybylski et al., 2013). Specifically, higher FoMO is related to lower
life satisfaction (Błachnio & Przepiórka, 2018), lower self-esteem To the best of our knowledge, previous research failed to test causal
(Buglass, Binder, Betts, & Underwood, 2017), higher anxiety links between PSU and FoMO among adolescents. The aim of the cur-
(Blackwell, Leaman, Tramposch, & Liss, 2017) and fear of being eval- rent study is to build upon prior cross-sectional findings by examining
uated negatively in a context of social anxiety (Wolniewicz, Tiamiyu, cross-lagged relationships between FoMO and PSU with a two-wave
Weeks, & Elhai, 2018). The FOMO construct can be especially im- panel model. The first hypothesis purported to show that the levels of
portant within the online context in which adolescents live. For ex- FoMO and PSU at Time 0 would be linked to the same factors at Time 1.
ample, social media activities via smartphones are attractive for ado- Secondly, we hypothesized that FoMO would be positively related to
lescents because they serve as instruments to build up their social PSU in both waves, in line with prior research showing moderate to
identities and express their desired self-presentation, without the su- great associations between FoMO and PSU (e.g., Chotpitayasunondh &
pervision of adults (Panova & Carbonell, 2018). Thus, it is likely that Douglas, 2016; Elhai et al., 2016, 2018; Wolniewicz et al., 2018). The
the adolescent’s extensive social media activity via smartphone might third research question explored the longitudinal direction of the as-
trigger more stressful feelings of not being connected often enough, as sociation between FoMO and PSU, given that both their prospective
well as the need to check up on others more frequently via social media associations could be supported.
(Buglass et al., 2017; Elhai et al., 2018). Previous research has shown Moreover, previous studies which evaluated the relationship be-
that greater FoMO is related to higher engagement with social media tween FoMO and PSU conceptualized FoMO as a mono-dimensional
use (Blackwell et al., 2017; Franchina, Vanden Abeele, Van Rooij, Lo construct. Given that no previous research had examined the relation-
Coco, & De Marez, 2018) and to PSU (Abel, Buff, & Burr, 2016; Elhai, ship between PSU and both the FoMO-Fear and FoMO-Control dimen-
Levine, Dvorak, & Hall, 2016; Elhai, Yang, Fang, Bai, & Hall, 2020; Kuss sions (Casale & Fioravanti, 2020), in the present study we have ex-
et al., 2018). It is also worth noting that FOMO is still being widely plored the relationships between these variables in both waves.
investigated, and there is an ongoing debate regarding its character- Relevant covariates were also controlled. Specifically, since re-
istics. A recent study (Casale & Fioravanti, 2020) identified two com- search suggests that age (e.g. FoMO is highest at a younger age; Elhai
ponents of FoMO with adolescents and young adults: the first one et al., 2018), gender (e.g. FoMO is highest among women; Elhai et al.,
(FoMO-Fear) reflects the original conceptualization of FoMO (i.e. peo- 2018) and emotion dysregulation (i.e. individuals who exhibit higher
ple’s fears and worries about being out of touch with experiences across emotion dysregulation are more likely to use smartphones in order to
their extended social environment); whereas the second (FoMO-Con- manage negative emotions; Elhai et al., 2016, 2018; Kim, Seo, & David,
trol) reflects a cognitive/behavioral dimension of the FoMO construct 2015) all affect associations between study variables, these were in-
(i.e. ruminative thoughts and strategies to address the fears associated cluded as covariates.
with decreasing levels of social connectedness), by suggesting that some
maladaptive cognitions could sustain high levels of FoMO. 2. Materials and methods

1.1. The link between FoMO and PSU 2.1. Participants

Although there have been several studies investigating the link be- The study included 242 participants, assessed in two waves. At Time
tween FoMO and PSU, the direction of this association is still unclear, 0 data were collected from 700 adolescents, as part of a larger study on
because the vast majority of existing research on this topic is cross- the potentially negative consequences of PSU on Italian adolescents.
sectional. A large body of research suggested that FoMO can result in From this initial sample, 263 adolescents were invited to participate in
PSU (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Elhai et al., 2016, 2018), the second assessment. Thirteen adolescents declined to take part in the
rather than the other way around. Thus, the unmet social relatedness study, thus 250 adolescents were initially considered for this study.
needs that are entailed in FOMO (Przybylski et al., 2013) could drive Eight adolescents (37% males) were subsequently excluded due to
one towards greater engagement with a PSU. For example, adolescents missing data. The final sample comprised 242 adolescents (45% males),
with high FoMO might feel compelled to check their smartphone in ranging in age from 12 to 16 years (M = 14.16 ± 0.99). The majority of
order to keep up to date on their friends’ activities. However, the op- them (78.5%) had attended school for 9 years with the remaining
posite direction is also possible, with PSU resulting in an increased adolescents completing eight (7.0%), eleven (12.8%), twelve (0.4%)
tendency towards FoMO. For example, there is evidence that habitual and thirteen (1.2%) years of school.
smartphone use and certain privileged applications can trigger addic-
tive smartphone behavior (Van Deursen, Bolle, Hegner, & Kommers, 2.2. Measures
2015; Giordano et al., 2019). The automatic and continuous notifica-
tions from social media delivered to the smartphone, could heighten the The Fear of Missing Out scale (FoMOs; Przybylski et al., 2013) is a
need to check on what friends are doing more often, as well as the 10-item self-report measure of the apprehension that others might be
FoMO. Thus, extensive social media use could exacerbate the adoles- having rewarding experiences from which one is absent. The Italian
cent’s perception of missing out on online social relationships (Oberst, version of the FoMO (Casale & Fioravanti, 2020) covers two domains:
Wegmann, Stodt, Brand, & Chamarro, 2017). These two paths (FoMo vs FoMO-Fear and FoMO-Control. The FoMOs has shown good reliability
PSU, and PSU vs FoMO) are not mutually exclusive. According to the in previous research (α = 0.79 and 0.70 for FoMO-Fear and FoMO-
Compensatory Internet Use Theory (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014), the Control, respectively; Casale & Fioravanti, 2020), as well as in the
problematic use of technological devices could be conceptualized as a current study (T0: α = 0.79 and 0.75, T1: α = 0.83 and 0.78 for FoMO-
way in which people regulate negative emotions associated with FoMO. Fear and FoMO-Control, respectively).
At the same time, there is also research suggesting a path from PSU to The Smartphone Addiction Scale-short version (SAS-SV; Kwon, Kim,
FoMO: the use of smartphones may increase FoMO in a kind of vicious Cho, & Yang, 2013) is a 10-item self-report measure of PSU. The Italian

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G. Lo Coco, et al. Addictive Behaviors 106 (2020) 106360

version of the SAS-SV has shown good reliability in previous research SAS on T0 FoMO-Fear). The overall goodness of model-fit was assessed
(α = 0.79; De Pasquale, Sciacca, & Hichy, 2017), as well as in the using the Satorra-Bentler robust χ2 test statistics (S-Bχ2/df ratios < 3
current study (T0α = 0.77 and T1α = 0.81). indicate reasonable fitting models), the robust comparative fit index
The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form (DERS-SF; (CFI; values > 0.95 indicate a good fit; Schermelleh-Engel,
Gratz & Roemer, 2004; Kaufman et al., 2016; Giromini, Velotti, De Moosbrugger, & Müller, 2003), and the root-mean-square error of ap-
Campora, Bonalume, & Zavattini, 2012) is a 18-item self-report mea- proximation (RMSEA; values < 0.05 indicate a good fit; Hu & Bentler,
sure of emotion dysregulation. The reliability of the DERS-SF has been 1999). The longitudinal auto-regressive, cross-lagged model was con-
well demonstrated (α = 0.89-0.91, Kaufman et al., 2016). In the pre- ducted using EQS 6.1 (Bentler, 2006). The model tested used robust
sent study, the DERS-SF showed good internal consistency (α = 0.88). Maximum Likelihood estimation (MLR). Multivariate non-normality
was evaluated using Mardia’s index (2.67) and robust statistics were
2.3. Procedures used. Age, gender (0 = males, 1 = females) and emotion dysregulation
were considered as control variables. Finally, the same model was
Two waves of data were collected from participants in five middle tested in a subgroup of participants with high levels of PSU (i.e. ado-
and high schools in Italy at two time-points (T0 and T1, one year apart). lescents with SAS-SV scores above the cut-offs for high risk of PSU –
Information about the study and consent forms were sent to the parents males: 22–31; females: 22–33) or PSU (males: > 31; females: > 33)
of all adolescents. Participants received no compensation. Surveys were (Kwon et al., 2013).
completed by students within their classrooms under the supervision of
trained research assistants. The study was conducted in accordance
with the ethical standards of the Italian Psychological Association 3. Results
(AIP), as well as the Declaration of Helsinki.
3.1. Preliminary analyses
2.4. Plan of data analysis
At T1 adolescents reported significantly higher scores both for
FoMO-Fear (t(df) = −3.788 (241), p < .001; Cohen ’s d = 0.243) and
Descriptive statistics and correlations between variables were ex-
FoMO-Control (t(df) = −3.672 (241), p < .001; Cohen ’s d = 0.236).
amined. Differences in FoMO (both dimensions) and PSU levels be-
Moreover, there was a trend toward higher SAS at T1 (t(df) = −1.941
tween T0 and T1 were tested using a paired samples t-test. Cohen’s d
(241), p = .053; Cohen’s d = 0.125). Descriptive analyses and corre-
effect sizes were also reported.
lations for DERS at T0 and for FoMO and SAS at T0 and T1 are pre-
A longitudinal auto-regressive, cross-lagged model was used to ex-
sented in Table 1. Both at T0 and T1 SAS was positively related to both
amine the associations between FoMO (both dimensions) and SAS over
FoMO subscales. Moreover, almost all correlations between T0 and T1
the two time points of data collection. The auto-regressive, cross-lagged
variables were significant. FoMO-Fear at T0 was positively related to
model (Fig. 1) was estimated with within-time relations (i.e. concurrent
FoMO-Fear and SAS at T1; FoMO-Control at T0 was positively related to
associations; e.g. correlation between both T0 FoMO subscales and T0
FoMO-Control and SAS at T1; and SAS at T0 was positively related to
SAS), autoregressive paths (i.e. stability of the constructs across time;
FoMO-Control and SAS at T1. Higher DERS scores were related to both
e.g. T1 FoMO-Fear on T0 FoMO-Fear), and cross-lagged paths (i.e.
higher SAS and FoMO subscales at T0 and to SAS and FoMO-Fear at T1.
longitudinal relationships between the variables investigated; e.g., T1

Fig. 1. Auto-Regressive, Cross-Lagged Model. Note: Slid black lines represent significant paths. Dotted grey lines represent non-significant paths. Gender is coded 0
for males and 1 for females; FoMO = Fear of Missing Out; SAS = Smartphone Addiction Scale; DERS = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale.

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G. Lo Coco, et al. Addictive Behaviors 106 (2020) 106360

Table 1
Descriptive analyses and correlations for DERS at T0 and for FoMO (both subscales) and SAS at T0 and T1.
M DS 1 2 3 4 5 6

Time 0
1. SAS 20.78 6.86 –
2. FoMO-Fear 1.76 0.81 0.383** –
3. FoMO-Control 2.72 0.79 0.435** 0.472** –
4. DERS 37.44 11.81 0.392** 0.383** 0.346** –
Time 1
5. SAS 21.77 7.69 0.408** 0.138* 0.212** 0.236** –
6. FoMO-Fear 2.02 0.93 0.058 0.219** 0.106 0.171** 0.389** –
7. FoMO-Control 2.95 0.84 0.166* 0.071 0.320** 0.096 0.409** 0.433**

Note: SAS = Smartphone Addiction Scale; FoMO = Fear of Missing Out scale; DERS = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; * p < .05, ** p < .01.

3.2. Auto-regressive, cross-lagged model 4. Discussion

The model provided a modest fit to the data (S-Bχ2 = 66.6163, The current study examined longitudinal, bi-directional relation-
df = 12, S-Bχ2/df = 5.55, Robust CFI = 0.851, RMSEA = 0.137, ships between FoMO and PSU among adolescents. The first hypothesis
RMSEA 90% C.I. = 0.106 - 0.170) so the modification indices were of the study was supported by the significant autoregressive paths for
used to improve the fit. More specifically, the model was modified by FoMO and PSU. Thus, results suggested that adolescents who report
adding three covariances (i.e. DERS/FoMO-Fear, DERS/FoMO-Control higher FoMO and/or PSU at a given time point are more likely to report
and DERS/SAS at T0). These modifications improved the model fit: S- higher levels of FoMO and/or PSU from one year to the next, con-
Bχ2 = 5.9531, df = 9, χ2/df = 0.66, Robust CFI = 1.000, sistently with studies supporting a stability of PSU through develop-
RMSEA = 0.000, RMSEA 90% C.I. = 0.000–0.052, largest absolute mental stages (Coyne, Stockdale, & Summers, 2019). Moreover, con-
standardized residuals = 0.109. The model accounted for 18%, 12% sistent with previous cross-sectional research focusing on the link
and 12% of the variance in SAS, FoMO-Fear and FoMO-Control at T1, between FoMO and PSU (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, 2016; Elhai
respectively. See Fig. 1 and Table 2 for full model results. et al., 2018; Wolniewicz et al., 2018), our findings suggest the interplay
As hypothesized, there were statistically significant concurrent po- between higher FoMO (both FoMO-Fear and FoMO-Control) and PSU at
sitive associations between FoMO (both dimensions) and SAS at both both time points. The current study adds that both dimensions of FoMO
time points (T0: FoMO-Fear/SAS, β = 0.383, p < .001, FoMO- are linked to PSU, consistently with the study by Casale and Fioravanti
Control/SAS, β = 0.435, p < .001; T1: FoMO-Fear/SAS, β = 0.414, (2020), which reported positive associations between FoMO subscales
p < .001, FoMO-Control/SAS, β = 0.381, p < .001). and social media addiction. Further research is necessary to examine
Across time, both for FoMO and SAS the stability paths at T0 to T1 the role that the FoMO-Control dimension, involving ruminative
were confirmed: T1 FoMO-Fear was positively related to T0 FoMO-Fear, thoughts and the need for control, may play in predicting adolescents’
T1 FoMO-Control was positively related to T0 FoMO-Control, T1 SAS PSU.
was positively related to T0 SAS. However, contrary to hypotheses, no Contrary to our hypotheses, results indicated no longitudinal cross-
significant longitudinal cross-lagged associations were found between lagged relationships between FoMO and PSU, impairing the likelihood
FoMO and SAS over time. Regarding control variables, girls and older that there is a causal link between FoMO and subsequent PSU, or vice
adolescents show higher FoMO-Fear scores at T1. Finally, to further test versa. This pattern of results was also confirmed in the sub-analysis
the specificity of this cross-lagged panel, in the sample with proble- with adolescents who scored above the SAS cut-off. Overall, these cross-
matic users who scored above the SAS cut-off, the same model was run lagged findings are in contrast with most prior cross-sectional research
in a subgroup of 108 participants (44.6% of the total sample; 40% (Blackwell et al., 2017; Elhai et al., 2018) and may paint a different
males; mean age = 24.23 ± 1.02). The model provided a good fit to picture about the relationship between these two constructs. However,
the data (by adding also an additional covariance between age and T0 these findings are in line with those from recent studies, which found
FoMO-Control; S-Bχ2 = 9.1914, df = 8, S-Bχ2/df = 1.15, Robust weak longitudinal associations between constructs that are generally
CFI = 0.988, RMSEA = 0.037, RMSEA 90% C.I. = 0.000 - 0.123). No related at a cross-sectional level. For example, an extensive study with
significant longitudinal cross-lagged associations were found between 10- to 15-year old participants showed that the longitudinal relation-
FoMO (both dimensions) and SAS over time (T0 FoMO-Fear → T1 SAS: ship between social media use and life satisfaction is nuanced and
β = −0.064, p = .522; T0 FoMO-Control → T1 SAS: β = −0.041, varied, depending on how the data are analyzed (Orben, Dienlin, &
p = .653; T0 SAS → T1 FoMO-Fear: β = −0.119, p = .246; T0 SAS → Przybylski, 2019). Moreover, when adolescents’ data were analyzed
T1 FoMO-Control: β = 0.108, p = .298). with an autoregressive and cross-lagged panel at a within-person level

Table 2
Auto-regressive, cross-lagged model results (n = 242).
DV: T1 FOMO-Fear DV: T1 FOMO-Control DV: T1 SAS
B β p R2 B β p R2 B β p R2

0.115 0.116 0.176

T0 – FoMO-Fear 0.221 0.193 < 0.05 −0.124 −0.120 0.080 −0.653 −0.069 0.327
T0 – FoMO-Control −0.009 −0.007 0.920 0.368 0.349 < 0.001 0.427 0.044 0.503
T0 – SAS -0.011 −0.085 0.246 0.007 0.057 0.435 0.416 0.372 < 0.001
Gender 0.312 0.168 < 0.01 0.114 0.068 0.258 0.872 0.057 0.337
Age 0.178 0.191 < 0.01 −0.019 −0.023 0.704 0.015 0.002 0.976
DERS 0.008 0.107 0.131 −0.000 −0.005 0.936 0.063 0.098 0.211

Note: Gender is coded 0 for males and 1 for females; FoMO = Fear of Missing Out; SAS = Smartphone Addiction Scale; DERS = Difficulties in Emotion Regulation
Scale.

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G. Lo Coco, et al. Addictive Behaviors 106 (2020) 106360

(Coyne, Rogers, Zurcher, Stockdale, & Booth, 2020), results showed could be speculated that a stronger female engagement on social media
that the cross-sectional associations between time spent using social use during adolescence (Oberst et al., 2017) may negatively reinforce
media and mental health problems did not hold when examining the their FoMO, but further prospective research is needed on this topic.
longitudinal paths among variables.
Our findings suggest that the association between FoMO and PSU 4.1. Strengths and limitations of the study
might not be due to the causal effects of either, but due to the effects of
different variables. Previous research suggested the role of anxiety as a While our study has a number of strengths, including the in-
predisposing factor of FoMO (Elhai et al., 2017), consistent with the I- vestigation of longitudinal directionality between FoMO and PSU, as
PACE model (Brand, Young, Laier, Wölfling, & Potenza, 2016) which opposed to mere cross-sectional assessment among a sample of ado-
examined FoMO as a mediator between psychological symptoms and lescents, several limitations should also be noted. Firstly, in this study,
negative consequences of PSU (Elhai et al., 2020; Oberst et al., 2017; only two time-points of data collection were considered. Future studies
Przybylski et al., 2013). Furthermore, negative affectivity (i.e. rumi- should include large-scale panel datasets in order to separate the pro-
nation, boredom proneness) can mediate the relationship between portional change (changes that are dependent on immediately pre-
FoMO and PSU (Elhai et al., 2018). However, on the contrary, de- ceding levels of each variable) from the continuous developmental
pression, anxiety and self-regulation did not predict PSU during the processes (mean-level changes) in each variable over the entire avail-
transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood (Coyne et al., able time period (Hounkpatin, Boyce, Dunn, & Wood, 2018). Also, more
2019). Overall, these mixed findings suggest that future research should assessment time is needed to disentangle the between-person from the
examine the longitudinal link between FoMO, negative affectivity and within-person effects (Berry & Willoughby, 2017). Moreover, given the
PSU through different stages of development. low power of the cross-lagged panel, further research should be re-
Of note, in this study the effect of smartphone use frequency on peated across different time lags and with different groups of subjects.
features such as social networking or instant messaging was not con- Finally, recruitment occurred within a community context using a
trolled, and prior research suggested that higher smartphone frequency convenience sample. Although this provides important information
of use might mediate the relationship between FoMO and PSU among regarding the reciprocal influence between FoMO and PSU, it would be
students (Elhai et al., 2020). The experience of social media use via important to repeat this study with larger and more representative
smartphones may be particularly relevant, given that it seems em- samples.
bedded into FoMO in a kind of vicious circle (Casale, Rugai, &
Fioravanti, 2018), because the more often adolescents check their social 4.2. Conclusion
media, the more often they find events on which they are missing out
(Franchina et al., 2018; Oberst et al., 2017). Smartphones with permanent internet access may represent cata-
Building on these prior findings, future research could also take into lysts of FoMO. However, the nature of the link between PSU and FoMO
account the distinction between a process smartphone use (i.e. which is still unclear because research on bidirectional relationships among
involves primarily non-social purposes) and social one (i.e. which in- these constructs has so far received limited attention. The current study
volves social purposes such as social networking and communication) provides initial evidence on the lack of cross-lagged effects for FoMO
(Van Deursen et al., 2015), in order to examine whether adolescents and PSU over time. Based upon these results, future research needs to
with high FoMO might perceive new notifications from social media as focus on the understanding of variables that may better account for the
a rewarding experience, which increases addictive behavior with their relationship between FoMO and PSU.
smartphones.
Regarding the longitudinal design, future studies with data from a 5. Contributors
short-term framework could examine whether FoMO may cause short-
term changes in PSU or vice versa. For example, recent evidence sug- G.L.C, C.G. and M.D.B. designed the study and wrote the protocol.
gests that higher FOMO levels are related to increasingly negative ef- M.D.B. conducted literature searches and provided summaries of pre-
fects over the week (Elhai, Rozgonjuk, Liu, & Yang, 2020) and that vious research studies. A.L.T. and V.F. collected the data. L.S. con-
FoMO predicted negative outcomes (i.e. physical symptoms, stress, fa- ducted the statistical analysis. L.S. and G.L.C. wrote the first draft of the
tigue) on a daily basis (Milyavskaya, Saffran, Hope, & Koestner, 2018). manuscript and all authors contributed to and have approved the final
However, these studies focused on college students and more research manuscript.
is needed on this topic among adolescents. Results from the present
study suggest that FoMO may not act as a risk factor for long-term in- Author disclosure statements
creases in PSU among adolescents, but FoMO is associated with the
increased likelihood of this behavior one year later. The high cross- Role of Funding Source
sectional correlations between FoMO and PSU suggest an interplay There is no specific grant funding to acknowledge.
between them, and their reciprocal influences by repeated assessments
over a short time-lag need to be examined. The cross-lagged model also Declaration of Competing Interest
included relevant covariates. Emotion regulation is worth noting and
despite being cross-sectionally associated with both PSU and FoMO, in The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
line with existing literature (Casale, Caplan, & Fioravanti, 2016; Van interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
Deursen et al., 2015), its role in predicting these variables over time ence the work reported in this paper.
was not significant. Attempts to further examine the role of emotion
regulation on FoMO and PSU should take into account different time Appendix A. Supplementary data
lags.
Finally, in this study both females and older adolescents reported Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
higher levels of FoMO-Fear at T1, contrary to the previous study, which doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106360.
found no significant gender and age differences in FoMO-Fear (Casale &
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