The Influence of College Students'Use of Social Media on Online Social Anxiety——Mediating and moderating roles of upward social comparison and online social support
To investigate whether the use of social media among university students triggers negative emotions such as anxiety and uneasiness,an intermediary and moderating model is constructed to examine the relationship between college students social media usage and online social anxiety based on the Social Comparison Theory and Cognitive-Affective Theory.In this model,upward social comparison is introduced as the mediating variable,while online social support served as the moderating variable,aiming to explore the mechanisms underlying the impact of social media usage on online social anxiety among university students.The empirical results indicate that university students social media usage has a positively significant impact on upward social comparison(β=0.589,p<0.01);upward social comparison,in turn,significantly and positively influences online social anxiety among students(β=0.489,p<0.01).Furthermore,social media usage itself directly contributes positively and significantly to online social anxiety(β=0.625,p<0.01).Upward social comparison partially mediates the relationship between social media usage and online social anxiety,while online social support has a negatively moderating effect(β=-0.088,p<0.05)on the relationship between social media usage and online social anxiety.Based on these findings,several recommendations are proposed:To alleviate online social anxiety among university students,it is crucial to encourage the rational use of social media and to adopt an objective perspective towards the content presented by others on social media platforms.Additionally,the positive role of online social support should be actively leveraged to mitigate online social anxiety.Lastly,strengthening information moderation and enhancing users'experience are essential steps to further address this issue.
college studentsocial mediumsocial anxietyonline social supportupward social comparison
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