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The relationship analyzed on a batch of a Romanian adult population, explained by self-esteem and influenced by factors such as age and professional status, highlights the fact that all age categories and professional status can be affected by addiction to the online environment but with different degrees of intensity. The analyses carried out using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) suggest that young people and professionally inactive people are the categories with the highest degree of self-esteem impairment and with a high potential to manifest symptoms associated with depression and anxiety disorders, as a result of the intense use of social networks. The current study makes a significant contribution to the specialized literature, given the small volume of similar studies conducted on the adult population of Romania.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs15040481","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,8]],"date-time":"2025-04-08T05:59:00Z","timestamp":1744091940000},"page":"481","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Online Captive: The Impact of Social Media Addiction on Depression and Anxiety\u2014An SEM Approach to the Mediating Role of Self-Esteem and the Moderating Effects of Age and Professional Status"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8013-9840","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniela-Elena","family":"Li\u021ban","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Psychology Department, West University of Timi\u0219oara, 300223 Timi\u0219oara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Affizie, G. 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