This paper aims to investigate the mediating effect of academic procrastination on the relationship between social media addiction and academic success. The study employed the multi-factorial predictive correlational model, and the study group consisted of 184 pre-service social studies teachers attending a public university in the south of Turkey in the 2019-2020 academic year. The data were collected by means of the “Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents” and the “Tuckman Procrastination Scale.” For academic success, participants’ grade point averages were considered. Descriptive statistics, correlations, hierarchical regression analysis, and mediation analysis proposed by Hayes (2018) were used for data analysis. Correlation analysis results revealed that social media addiction is positively correlated with academic procrastination and negatively correlated with academic success. Also, a negative correlation was found between academic procrastination and academic success. According to hierarchical regression analysis results, social media addiction positively predicted academic procrastination and negatively predicted academic success. Also, academic procrastination negatively predicted academic success. Finally, according to the results of the mediation analysis, the partial mediating effect of academic procrastination in the relationship between social media addiction and academic success was statistically significant. Besides, social media addiction and academic procrastination significantly explained 43% of the variance in academic success. The results are discussed in the context of the effects of social media addiction on academic responsibility and academic performance.

social media addiction, academic procrastination, pre-service social studies teachers’ hierarchical regression analysis, mediation analysis