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Psychological maltreatment in childhood affects fear of missing out in adulthood: the mediating path of basic psychological needs and the moderating influence of conscientiousness

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Abstract

The fear of missing out can be negatively impacted by childhood psychological maltreatment. However, previous studies have yet to investigate the underlying mechanisms through which childhood psychological maltreatment influences fear of missing out in adulthood. Drawing from self-determination theory, this paper proposed a hypothesis stating that childhood psychological maltreatment causes a deficiency in basic psychological needs, which in turn results in fear of missing out during adulthood (Hypothesis 1). Especially for individuals with high conscientiousness, because they have higher demands on themselves, they raise the "threshold" for satisfying basic psychological needs, making it harder for them to meet needs. The nexus of childhood psychological maltreatment and basic psychological needs could be moderated by conscientiousness (Hypothesis 2). The study recruited college students as participants through offline advertising posters. The combined count of valid participants enrolled was 500. Among them, there were 223 males (Mage = 20.076, SDage = 0.999) and 277 females (Mage = 20.181, SDage = 1.217). Findings of the study reveals childhood psychological maltreatment had a robust tied with fear of missing out and basic psychological needs functioned as an incomplete intermediary in the connection (β = 0.369, SE = 0.041, p < 0.001). The indirect effect was responsible for 59.7% of the total effect observed. Further moderated mediation analyses indicate that conscientiousness moderates the nexus of childhood psychological maltreatment and basic psychological needs, with the nexus being amplified in the context of high conscientiousness adults (β = -0.270, SE = 0.041, p < 0.001). The findings suggest a critical mechanism explaining the bond between childhood psychological maltreatment and fear of missing out is the decreased contentment for basic psychological needs; when basic psychological needs is influenced by childhood psychological maltreatment, conscientiousness moderates its effect. These findings imply that educators and primary caregivers should not only emphasize the significance of satisfying basic psychological needs for optimal individual psychological growth, but also acknowledge the potential detrimental effects of conscientiousness—a trait generally viewed as desirable—on individual psychological well-being.

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Data availability

The dataset analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors thank the participants who participated in the study. This research is supported by the Open Research Fund of Zhejiang Normal University (No. jykf20068).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China

    Simin Wan & Shuwei Lin

  2. Key Laboratory of Intelligent Education Technology and Application of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China

    Simin Wan, Guihua Qin & Shuwei Lin

  3. Department of Psychology, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China

    Shen Tu

  4. Nanchong Central Hospital, North Sichuan Medical University, Nanchong, China

    Sijie Li

  5. Department of Education, Hetao College, Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, China

    Yirimuwen

  6. Jinhua, China

    Shuwei Lin

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Correspondence to Shuwei Lin.

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Wan, S., Qin, G., Tu, S. et al. Psychological maltreatment in childhood affects fear of missing out in adulthood: the mediating path of basic psychological needs and the moderating influence of conscientiousness. Curr Psychol 43, 5987–5998 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04811-x

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