Objective:

To identify key predictors of adolescents’ subjective well-being (SWB) and examine the relationship between problematic social media use and SWB.

Approach:

• Data Source: Data from the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey, involving 187,090 adolescents aged 10 to 16.
• Analytical Methods: Utilized XGBoost and multivariate logistic regression models to explore impacts of problematic social media use on SWB.

Key Findings:

• All dimensions of problematic social media use, except for time reduction failure, were negatively associated with SWB.
• Feeling escape and family conflict accounted for 49.26% of the total variance in SWB, while age and sex accounted for 25.5%.
• Feeling escape, family conflict, increasing age, and female gender were significantly associated with lower SWB. Complex interaction patterns among these variables were also suggested.

Interpretation:

Future interventions should focus on emotional regulation skills, quality of family communication, and tailored support for older adolescents and girls.

Limitations:

• The study is based on self-reported data, which may be subject to bias.
• The cross-sectional design limits causal inferences.

Conclusion:

Identifying predictors of SWB is important for understanding the factors influencing adolescent well-being.