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Pourshahriar H, Dindoost M, Baharshanjani S. The Derivers, Behaviors, and Consequences of the Fear of Missing Out in Iranian Youth. IJPCP 2024; 30 (1) : 4644.2
URL: http://ijpcp.iums.ac.ir/article-1-4085-en.html
The Derivers, Behaviors, and Consequences of the Fear of Missing Out in Iranian Youth
Hossein Pourshahriar1 , Marziyeh Dindoost2 , Samin Baharshanjani 3
1- Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
2- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
3- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. , s.bahar@modares.ac.ir
Keywords: Fear, Fear of missing out, Youth, Grounded theory
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Introduction
“Fear of missing out” (FOMO) is the feeling of need to stay connected to social networks caused by a fear that one is missing an opportunity for more rewarding experiences [1-3]. This fear arises within a social context where social environment shapes the attitudes, values, motivations, and behaviors. For having proper growth and psychological well-being, the social environment need to respond to three basic needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When individuals cannot fulfill these needs and social groups fail to meet them, FOMO occurs in social relationships [5, 6]. Teenagers and young adults are particularly susceptible to FOMO. However, studies have not fully examined the mechanisms of this syndrome and the affecting social contexts [24]. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the FOMO in Iranian youth.

Method
This is a qualitative study based on the grounded theory. Participants were 21 young adults with FOMO aged 18-25 in Mashhad, Iran. Sampling was done using a purposeful sampling method until reaching data saturation. Przybylski’s FOMO scale was used to diagnose FOMO in samples. In-depth interviews were used to survey their lived experiences. Semi-structured interviews with experts were also used to collect information about the characteristics and dimensions of the concept. Then, data analysis was conducted to examine the content and extract themes, and the outcomes.

Results
The derivers, behaviors, and consequences of the FOMO among Iranian youth were analyzed within the framework of one central theme “trying to achieve self-adequacy”. This led to the extraction of 8 main themes and 21 sub-themes (Table 1).



Conclusion
The deficiencies in the family, as well as the individual and social conditions of the young people, can led to a sense of inadequacy which can develop. This feeling can be perpetuated by factors such as peer pressure and attractiveness of social media. In this path, the individual has experienced a mixture of failures and successes, ultimately leading to two outcomes: drowning in such fears or managing to rescue from them. It seems that, for preventing or treating the FOMO, special attention should be paid to strengthening the individual’s sense of self-adequacy.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study has ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Shahid Beheshti University (Code: IR.SBU.REC.1401.136).

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors contributions
Conceptualization: Hossein Pourshahriar and Marziyeh Dindoost; Methodology, initial draft preparation: Marziyeh Dindoost and Samin Baharshanjani; Data analysis and Visualization: Marziyeh Dindoost; Resources: Samin Baharshanjani; Supervision, review, project administration: Hossein Pourshahriar; Validation and investigation: All authors.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants for their support and cooperation in this study.

 
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Type of Study: Original Research | Subject: Psychiatry and Psychology
Received: 2024/01/2 | Accepted: 2024/07/13 | Published: 2024/07/31
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