The Relationship Between Social Exclusion And Problematic Social Network Use In College

As a group with a high percentage of Internet usage,college students often show a high tendency of problematic social network use while enjoying the convenience of the Internet,which leads to irrational cognition and negative emotional experiences such as depression,anxiety,and jealousy,and even externalizing problems such as interpersonal relationship problems,social adjustment problems,and sleep quality problems.Given the negative effects of problematic social network use,it is crucial to explore the influencing factors and underlying mechanisms of problematic social network use.General stress theory explains individual problematic behaviors in terms of environmental,cognitive,and emotional dimensions together.Previous studies have found that objective environmental stressors are closely related to problematic behaviors of college students.Social rejection is one of the stressors that arise when individuals are blocked from constructing social relationships,and it tends to make individuals lack necessary social support and tend to obtain a sense of belonging from social networks,and the way of using them for a long time with high frequency tends to trigger problematic social network use behaviors.The sense of meaning in life,as an important ability to regulate emotions and living conditions in university students’ academic life,influences to a certain extent the problematic behaviour of individuals.Therefore,this study will examine the mechanism of the role of social exclusion on problematic social network use from the general stress theory,ACE model,and explore the mediating role of the need to belong and the moderating role of the sense of meaning in life.The study used the Social Rejection Scale for College Students,the Belonging Needs Scale,the Sense of Meaning in Life Scale,and the Problematic Social Network Use Scale to measure 949 college students from three colleges and universities in Liaoning Province,and used SPSS 25.0 to correlate and statistically analyze the data.The results showed that:(1)college students’ social rejection positively predicted problematic social network use.(2)College students’ need to belong mediates the relationship between social exclusion and problematic social network use.(3)College students’ sense of meaning in life mediated the relationship between social exclusion and problematic social network use,and between the need to belong and problematic social network use.Based on this,we conclude that college students with higher levels of social exclusion and higher levels of need to belong have higher levels of problematic social network use,and high levels of sense of meaning in life can effectively mitigate problematic social network use caused by social exclusion and belonging needs.