Understanding the Effects of Social Media on Empathic Concern among Ethiopian Undergraduate University Students: A Moderated Multiple Mediation Model

Abstract The current study investigated the effect of social media usage on empathic concern in Ethiopian adolescents and investigated the mediating effects of self-esteem and peer connection and the moderating effect of parental communication. Data were gathered from 763 adolescents at Wolaita Sodo University via structured questionnaires and were analysed through descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, regression, and Hayes's PROCESS macro for mediation, moderation, and moderated multiple mediation analysis. The findings revealed that greater usage of social media was strongly related to decreased emphatic concern (B = -0.083, β = -0.126, p < .001) and that peer connection and self-esteem partially mediated this relationship, suggesting that social media overuse can decrease empathy by reducing adolescents' level of self-esteem and social connectedness. Additionally, parent communication significantly moderated the direct and indirect paths from social media use to empathic concern; the negative impact of social media use was strongest when parent communication was low and inverted when it was high. The moderated multiple mediation analysis also revealed that the indirect effects of social media use on empathic concern via self-esteem and peer connection were dependent on parental communication, emphasizing the dynamic interaction between peer, individual, and family systems. The results generalize ecological, social learning, and media effects theories by showing how family communication, digital use, and psychological resources affect empathic development. The study focuses on encouraging healthy balanced social media use, self-esteem, and peer relationships, as well as effective supportive parental communication, to increase empathic concern among Ethiopian adolescents.