Personality disorders traits, interpersonal problems and emotion dysregulation as predictors of Facebook addiction

Background: Some empirical data suggest that Facebook Addiction (FA) is underlined by difficulties in emotion regulation. We aimed to investigate the role played by personality disorder traits, interpersonal problems and emotion dysregulation in FA. Methods: We administered to a sample of community participants (N = 270; 78.5% females; Mage = 41 years, SD = 14.05), the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), the Personality Inventory Index for DSM-5 (PID-5), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Interpersonal Problem Index-47 (IPI47). Results: Controlling for age and gender, we found that the IPI Aggression subscale, the Negative Affectivity domain of the PID-5 and the DERS Total score positively and significantly predicted BFAS scores. Moreover, results showed that emotion dysregulation partially mediated the relationship between personality disorder traits and FA severity whereas interpersonal problems moderated the direct relationship between pathological personality and FA severity. Conclusions: Our results shed light on the complex pattern of relationships between these variables.