The Relations Between Adolescents’ Social Network Use And Interpersonal Adaptability:The Roles Of Self-disclosure And Imaginary Audience

As the Internet has an increasing influence on our social life, the online communication has gradually become an important form of individual social interaction. Especially for the adolescents living in the era of Internet, which is also called the "digital natives", the social network use has become an important channel for their access to emotional support and friendship. As an indispensable part in teenagers’ daily life, the social network use has constituted an important social environment influencing youth development. The relation between individuals’ Internet usage and psychological adaptation has always been the concern of cyber psychology researchers. However, the researchers did not reach an agreement on the influence of online communication on the offline interpersonal relationships. It is necessary to make a comparative research so as to explore the effects of social network use on interpersonal relations in different areas for junior and senior high school students.In this study, the sample was made up of 675 junior high school students and 656 senior high school students. Questionnaires were used to investigated the relations between adolescents’ social network use and interpersonal adaption such as loneliness and alienation, as well as explore the mediating effect of online self-disclosure and the moderating effect of the imaginary audience. The study results were as follows:(1) Overall, the social network using intensity was significantly positively correlated with their alienation from relatives, but not significantly related to loneliness. Junior and senior high school students had difference on the social network using intensity and the levels of loneliness and imaginary audience, with senior high school students having a higher level.(2) Junior high school students’ social network using intensity was significantly positively correlated with their alienation from relatives, but not significantly related to loneliness. But for senior high school students, the social network using intensity was significantly negatively correlated with their loneliness, but not significantly related to alienation.(3) For junior high school students, the depth of online self-disclosure had mediating effect on the relation between social network using intensity and relative alienation. While for senior high school students, the amount of online self-disclosure had mediating effect on the relation between social network using intensity and loneliness.(4) The imaginary audience had moderating effect on the mediating process of the amount of online self-disclosure on the relation between social network using intensity and loneliness. More specifically speaking, for senior high school students with low level of imaginary audience, the amount of online self-disclosure had a more significantly negative predictive effect on loneliness, manifested as a moderated mediation model. In conclusion, the research results supported the "rich get richer" model on Internet usage.