Maladaptive daydreaming and cybervictimization among adolescents: A cross-sectional comparison of problematic social media use and problematic gaming

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) involves excessive, immersive fantasizing that gets in the way of everyday functioning. In this cross-sectional study, we looked at how MD is associated with cybervictimization in a sample of 1216 Italian adolescents aged 11–19 ( M = 14.81, SD = 1.79), and compared problematic social media use and problematic gaming as two concurrent candidate indirect variables. Participants completed established self-report measures of MD, problematic social media use, problematic gaming, and cybervictimization. Using a parallel indirect-effect model that controlled for age and gender, we found that MD was positively associated with both problematic social media use and problematic gaming. Problematic social media use showed a significant indirect association between MD and cybervictimization, while problematic gaming did not once both variables were considered together. MD also remained directly associated with cybervictimization even when these variables were taken into account. Overall, problematic social media use was the only variable that showed a clear, specific indirect association in this model. Because the design was cross-sectional, these results reflect associations observed at a single point in time and do not establish temporal ordering or causal processes.