Social media, institutional credibility, and digital trust: Understanding employment social security participation decisions among generation Z in Indonesia

Understanding how individuals make decisions regarding participation in employment social security programs has become increasingly important in digitally connected societies. This study develops a decision-making model that explains employment social security participation among Generation Z in Indonesia by integrating social media engagement, institutional credibility, digital trust, and online awareness. Drawing upon the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) Theory, the study conceptualizes social media engagement and institutional credibility as decision stimuli, while digital trust and online awareness represent cognitive mechanisms that shape participation decisions. Data were collected from 412 Generation Z respondents in Banten Province, Indonesia, using purposive sampling. The proposed model was evaluated using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) with IBM SPSS AMOS. The results demonstrate that social media engagement and institutional credibility significantly influence digital trust, online awareness, and participation decisions. Digital trust and online awareness positively affect employment social security participation, although the relationship between digital trust and online awareness is not statistically significant. Mediation analysis confirms that digital trust and online awareness serve as important decision mechanisms linking digital communication and institutional factors to participation outcomes. The findings contribute to decision science literature by offering a data-driven behavioral decision model that explains how digital information environments and institutional credibility influence social security participation among younger generations. The proposed model may assist policymakers and social security institutions in designing more effective digital engagement strategies to improve participation rates.