This study investigated associations between exposure to warrelated
violent content on social media and indirect, mediarelated
post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in a nationally
representative sample of adolescents and young adults in
Germany (N= 1860; Mage = 18.6 years). Participants completed
an online survey assessing violent media exposure, PTSS,
alexithymia, different facets of empathy and perceived burden
related to current political crises. Regression analyses showed
that higher alexithymia, greater somatic empathy, stronger
perceived crisis-related burden, younger age and personal
exposure to war-related events were significantly associated
with higher PTSS, explaining 14.1% of the variance. In contrast,
the frequency of violent social media exposure was not significantly
related to symptom severity. The findings suggest that
individual emotional processing characteristics and contextual
burden are more strongly related to PTSS than mere exposure to
violent social media content, highlighting the relevance of
emotional awareness and bodily empathic reactivity in
responses to online violence.