The Relationship Between The Use Of Social Networking Sites And Mental Health Of Adolescents:the Role Of Upward Social Comparison And Friendship Quality

The use of WeChat,QQ,Weibo and other social networks has become an essential part of teenagers’ daily life.The relationship between the use of social media and teenagers’ mental health is a hot issue in current research.With the daily use of social media,the online and offline communication objects of young people overlap greatly.The use of social networking sites has become an important platform for their interpersonal communication,and upward social comparison has become a natural psychological process in the use of social networking sites.Therefore,based on The Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health(DFM),this study examined the relationship between different ways of using social networking sites and adolescents’ mental health,and explored the role of upward social comparison and peer friendship quality in the use of social networking sites in influencing adolescents’ mental health.In this study,619 middle school students from a middle school in Nanning,Guangxi were selected as the objects of investigation.The use of active and passive social networking sites questionnaire,upward social comparison scale,friendship quality scale and mental health questionnaire were used to investigate the mechanism of different social networking sites used by adolescents to affect their mental health.The results are as follows:In this study,619 middle school students from a middle school inNanning,Guangxi were taken as the objects of investigation.Through questionnaire survey,the use of social networking sites was measured from two aspects of active use and passive use,and the mental health status was measured from the aspects of positive psychological indicators and negative psychological indicators.To investigate the effect mechanism of different social network usage on mental health of adolescents and their relationship.The results are as follows:(1)The average score of active use was 2.68(SD=0.82);the average score of passive use was 2.31(SD=0.88).Among them,there was a significant gender difference in the use of active social networking sites,girls’ scores of active use behavior are higher than boys’;there was a significant gender difference in the use of passive social networking sites in school segments,high school students’ scores of passive use behavior are higher than junior high school students;(2)Friendship quality played a complete mediating role in the relationship between active social network use and positive psychological indicators,but not significant in the relationship between active social network use and negative psychological indicators;Friendship quality had some mediating effects on the relationship between passive social network use,positive psychological indicators and negative psychological indicators;(3)Upward social comparison and friendship quality played a chain mediating role in the relationship between the use of passive social networking sites and positive psychological indicators.According to the results of the study,we suggest that schools and teachers should guide students to use social networking sites properly,and that students should pay attention to the interaction and communication with their peers when using social networking sites.