| As smartphones and other mobile devices spread, Social networking sites have profoundly became an important medium of communication. The behavior research report of Chinese’s social media applications users, released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in July 2014, notes that the Social Network Sites (including QQ zone) users accounted for 61.7% of Internet users, and 33.8% of them were teenagers. Thus social networking sites have become a powerful tool, in which people communicate with each other cheaply and conveniently.With the popularity of social networking sites, the effects of social networking sites on individual’s social-psychological adjustment become the focus of many researchers gradually, and has made a series of achievements. However, the results of previous studies about the effects of social networking sites on individual’s social-psychological adjustment was not consistent.Therefore, researches explain the differences between these results from multiple perspectives, and the difference between specific SNS behaviors, such SNS upward social comparison, and experiences, such as envy and social anxiety, were considered to be the major reason, which results in different effects on individual’s social-psychological adjustment.In order to explore the specific effects of SNS using on individual’s social-psychological adjustment, on the basis of previous research and relevant theories, this thesis mainly discusses the relationship between SNS upward social comparison, envy, social anxiety, rumination and depression, focusing on the mediating role of envy and social anxiety, the moderating role of rumination and its gender difference through two studies.836 senior high school students were invited to complete the questionnaires about SNS upward social comparison, envy, social anxiety, rumination, and depression. The data processing was accomplished by SPSS23.0 and the Spss process written by Hayes (2012) (http://www.afhayes.com).The results indicated that, SNS upward social comparison had direct effect on depression, however, this direct effect soon become non-significant when we put the mediating variables, envy and social anxiety, into the regression equation, but it could affects depression through the mediating role of envy and social anxiety. The effects of SNS upward social comparison on envy, and the mediating role of envy could be moderated by the rumination. Specifically, for those who scored higher on rumination, the effects of SNS upward social comparison on envy and the mediating role of envy were more significantly.In order to explore the gender difference of the proposed model, all participants were divided into two groups (males,380,45.5%; females,456,54.5%) according to sex. The proposed model was examined in the two groups of participants respectively. The results indicated that, for all participants, no matter males or females, the direct effect of SNS upward social comparison on depression, the mediating role of envy and social anxiety were always significantly. However, the gender difference was found on the moderating role of rumination. Specifically, for males, the effects of SNS upward social comparison on envy and social anxiety, and the mediating roles of envy and social anxiety all could be moderated by the rumination, while the moderating role rumination could not be found in females.Finally, we summarized the inadequacies of this study, and put forward ideas for further research in the future, and elaborated the significance of the study in theory and practice. |
