KMAN Publication Inc. (KMANPUB) Journal of Adolescent and Youth Psychological Studies (JAYPS) 2981-2526 7 Serial Number 43 2026 01 10 Instagram Abuse and Deficient Emotion Facial Recognition Explain Young Adults’ Affective Depressive Symptoms Instagram Abuse and Deficient Emotion Facial Recognition Explain Young Adults’ Affective Depressive Symptoms 1 12 10.61838/kman.jayps.4548 EN Journal Article 2025 10 13 <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><strong>Objective:</strong>  Extant research suggests that women report higher levels of depression than men, and affective symptoms of depression (ASD) increases as self-esteem decreases. Some data also suggest that ASD grows with age into the 20’s. Besides replicating such findings, this study sought to determine whether self-reported abusive consumption of Instagram and objective emotion facial recognition deficit in Gen Z Young adults might explain the variance of ASD above and beyond that accounted for by demographic factors and self-esteem alone.</p> <p><strong>Methods and Materials:</strong> Forty-eight students in a Midwest university volunteered to participate. Participants completed a demographic form, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, an adapted version of Andreassen et al.’s (2012) Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale, two sub-scales of Soto and John’s Big Five Inventory-2 (2017), and an objective recognition task of 20 pre-selected facial expressions of basic emotions taken from Ekman and Friesen’s (2003) validated sample.</p> <p><strong>Findings:</strong> As predicted, multiple regressions initially replicated earlier correlation reports of biological sex, age, and self-esteem in predicted directions. After adding all factors in the full model, R2 significantly increased to 41%.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> The results suggest that both self-perceived Instagram abuse and deficient objective emotion facial recognition play a critical role in young adults’ ASD. A three-pronged recommendation is made for effective prevention of depression in this age group.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> https://journals.kmanpub.com/index.php/jayps/article/download/4548/8650