Motives for Social Media Use and their Associations with Well-being and Problematic Use: A Cross-Cultural Study in the UK and Arab Gulf Countries

The use of social media is embedded in everyday life and is associated with both well-being and problematic usage patterns. This study examines whether four distinct motives for social media use (social connection, mood enhancement, productivity, and peer pressure) are differentially associated with social media well-being (SM-WB) and problematic social media use (PSMU) across two culturally distinct samples from the United Kingdom (UK) and the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 281 active social media users in the UK (55.2% female) and 281 in the GCC Arab region (50.2% female), aged 18–60. Measurement invariance testing supported the comparability of constructs across groups. Regression analysis indicated that motives were differentially associated with SM-WB and PSMU outcomes. In both samples, mood enhancement was associated with higher SM-WB and PSMU. In contrast, social connection and productivity motives were associated only with SM-WB. Peer pressure showed a culturally differentiated pattern. For the GCC Arab sample, it was associated with both PSMU and SM-WB, whereas in the UK sample, it was associated with PSMU only. These findings suggest that the associations between social media use and psychological outcomes vary by underlying motivation and across cultural contexts. However, interpretations are limited by the cross-sectional design and the focus on digitally active adult samples. This study provides a cross-cultural, motive-based account of how social media use is differentially associated with SM-WB and PSMU outcomes, and offers a basis for future longitudinal and experimental research.