Longitudinal Study On The Influence Of Online Social Comparison On College Students’ Meaning In Life

College students are in a critical period of forming their outlook on life,world outlook and values.They are constantly exploring themselves,experiencing and pursuing the value and meaning in life.The acquisition of meaning in life is conducive to the healthy development of body and mind and social adaptation of college students.The meaning in life of college students is influenced by many factors such as environment and individual.Therefore,this study selects online social comparison(a network environmental factor)and two individual cognitive factors(social self-efficacy and self-concept clarity)to explore the longitudinal prediction and internal mechanism of online social comparison on college students’ meaning in life based on developmental situation theory,social comparison theory and meaning in life source theory.This study used the online social Comparison Scale,the social self-efficacy questionnaire,the self-concept clarity questionnaire and the sense of life meaning scale to track 691 undergraduates from the first to the third year of college in Shandong Province three times at an interval of six months.A latent variable growth model is constructed to explore the developmental characteristics of college students’ meaning in life.In Study 2,a cross-hysteresis model was constructed to explore the predictive effect of online social comparison on meaning in life.In the third study,the structural equation model was constructed to explore the mechanism of social self-efficacy and self-concept clarity in the longitudinal prediction effect of online social comparison on college students’ meaning in life.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The presence of meaning in life of college students showed an increasing trend within a year,and the difference was significant in gender,while the search for meaning in life showed a decreasing trend within a year,and the difference was significant in whether the only child or not.The presence of meaning and searching were relatively independent within a year;(2)Online upward social comparison is stable and positively predicts the search for meaning in life,and online downward social comparison and the presence of meaning in life are mutually predictive.Online downward social comparison can steadily and negatively predict the presence of meaning in life,and the presence of meaning in life can also negatively predict online downward social comparison behavior to a certain extent;(3)Social self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the relationship between online social comparison and meaning in life;(4)The moderating effect of self-concept clarity on the first half of the mediating effect of social self-efficacy on the presence of meaning in life is significant in online downward social comparison.