From socially prescribed perfectionism to problematic use of internet communicative services: The mediating roles of perceived social support and the fear of negative evaluation

•Socially prescribed perfectionism is associated with problematic internet use.•The fear of negative evaluation mediates this association among males and females.•Low social support mediates this association only among males.

BackgroundThe present study developed and tested a model that explains how people who believe that others have unrealistically high standards and exert pressure on them to be perfect (that is, people high in socially prescribed perfectionism) develop a problematic use of internet communicative services (GPIU). Following the perfectionism social disconnection model and previous evidence about the role that the online environment might play in the development of problematic internet use, low reported social support and the fear of negative evaluations in face to face interactions were hypothesized to mediate the association between socially prescribed perfectionism and GPIU.MethodsA sample of 465 undergraduate students was recruited (240 F; mean age 21.91 + 2.23 years), and the hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling separately for men and women.ResultsAmong men, the association between SPP and GPIU was fully mediated by the fear of being negatively evaluated and the perception of low social support. For women, we found a partially mediated model in which SPP affected GPIU indirectly through the fear of negative evaluations. The presence of a direct effect of SPP on GPIU was also found. Moreover, perceived social support was not found to be a significant mediator among women.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that problematic use of internet communicative services might be, at least in part, a defensive response to extreme social evaluation pressures.