Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) Associated With Maladaptive Behaviors Among College Students

Healthcare Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) Associated With Maladaptive Behaviors Among College Students Anuradha Varanasi Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Anuradha writes about environmental health disparities & epidemiology Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories. Got it! Oct 24, 2022, 04:33pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Two girls, drinking pints of lager, dancing and smiling, UK 2004 (Photo by Universal Images Group .

. . [+] via Getty Images) Universal Images Group via Getty Images While everyone occasionally experiences “fear of missing out” (FoMO) on fulfilling and pleasurable events or happenings with their peers, researchers warn that the degree to which someone experiences FoMO is associated with an increased risk of partaking in maladaptive behaviors.

A recent study that focuses on college students reveals that these behaviors include academic misconduct, drug and alcohol use, and breaking the law. “Transitioning to college is a milestone; young adults leave their homes’ safety and familiarity and step into the “unknown,”—an entirely novel environment both liberating and intimidating,” the researchers wrote in their paper. In order to maintain their mental health and motivation to stay on top of academic work, psychologists say people need autonomy, competence, and social relatedness to feel content or fulfilled.

To delve deeper into how college students cope with FoMO that arises from experiencing more autonomy and a deep desire to have intimate, trusting, and wholesome relationships with others, the researchers enrolled 472 participants in their new study. With the help of standard statistical tools, the team analyzed data from the 472 college students through a machine learning approach. Students who experienced far higher levels of FoMO showed higher rates of plagiarism, increased alcohol and cannabis consumption every week, taking more stimulants, as well as spending more on recreational drug use and even stealing.

“To reduce FoMO, students might use substances to “fit in” or belong in a peer group to fulfill social relatedness needs. Thus, student FoMO may predict substance use via social comparisons and baseline expectancies,” the researchers noted. “High FoMO undergraduate students did not engage in more drinking overall, but they did consume a greater quantity in a single drinking episode and experienced more negative consequences.

” MORE FOR YOU They Inherited Billions Upon Billions: Meet America’s Richest Heirs Amazon’s Holiday Beauty Haul Is Full Of Can’t-Miss Skincare And Haircare Deals Milwaukee Bucks Newest Toy: Spain Pick-And-Roll They also advice that FoMO assessments should be routinely carried out by university counselors who work closely with college students who might be struggling with the transition to college life. The authors added: “Using Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and demographic information, we were able to predict class membership (offender/user vs non-offender/non-user) of college students across multiple domains (alcohol and drug use, academic misconduct, illegal behavior) well above baseline (e. g.

, 50% at baseline vs 87% for academic misconduct). These results suggest that FoMO exists not just as an aversive phenomenon, but it also leads to concrete consequences for individuals and society. ” Follow me on Twitter .

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