Streaming Media Habits in Emerging Adulthood: Stress and Immersion Influence Escapist Motivation, Leading to Poor Sleep Quality and Wellbeing

While online media streaming is highly prevalent among emerging adults, its psychosocial effects are under-researched. Here, stress and immersive tendencies were found to influence escapist or coping-motivated streaming (R²=.317). In turn, escapism predicted problematic viewing habits (β=.861, p<.001), which predicted worse sleep quality (β=.334, p<.001) and overall wellbeing (β=-.307, p<.001).