engleski

Social networks use and mental health in adolescence: Motives and outcomes

During the past decade, social media has become one of the most important aspects of socialization, especially in adolescence, that has influence on individuals’ socioemotional development and well-being. Due to the worldwide relevance of social media, numerous studies are conducted, but the theoretical background for explaining underlying mechanisms of social media effects is mostly related to models of media in general. One of these models is the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM), which assumes that within-individual variables (e.g., individual’s dispositional, developmental, social characteristics) predict media use that further predict immediate cognitive, emotional and excitative responses, as well as short-term and long-term media effects. However, DSMM is not thoroughly validated in the social media use context. Therefore, the aim of our study was to test DSMM for the social media use context and explore whether different social media use motives predict problematic social networking and indirectly the adjustment outcomes (i.e., depression and loneliness). Participants were 1728 high school pupils from first to fourth grade in Croatia. Data were collected by the Motives for Social Media Use Scale (three subscales), Problematic Social Networking Scale (two subscales) (both scales were constructed for our research), DASS-21 (subscale for depression) and the short form of UCLA Loneliness Scale. Results revealed that compulsive social networking mediated between: 1) using social media for entertainment and loneliness ; 2) using social media for excitement or identification and loneliness. Problematic social networking (negligence of obligations) mediated between using social media for excitement and both depression and loneliness.

social media, adolescence, problematic social networking, depression, loneliness

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