The Influence Of Online Positive Feedback On Individual Psychological Adaptation And The Mediating Role Of Self-Esteem

With the development of the Internet,social media has become an important place for college students to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships,so researchers are paying more and more attention to its correlative fields.Online positive feedback means the praise and positive comments on the published dynamic information in the process of social network interaction,which can be regarded as a kind of social support and one of the protective factors of individual psychological adaptation.Self-esteem is an individual’s evaluation of the overall value of self and a predictor of mental health.According to the sociometer theory,self-esteem monitors the level of individual acceptance by others.Previous studies have demonstrated that social feedback is an important predictor of self-esteem,while few studies focus on online positive feedback,and there is also a relative lack of research on the relationship between online positive feedback and psychological adaptation by experimental manipulation,especially the role of self-esteem in it.The current study adopted both questionnaire and experimental methods to investigate the mediating role of trait self-esteem and state self-esteem in the effects of online positive feedback and college students’ psychological adaptation in general and experimental situations.The study included two sub-studies:In study 1,participants included 301 undergraduate students,in order to examine whether trait self-esteem played a mediating role in the effects of online positive feedback on psychological adjustment,the questionnaire method was used to collect data.The results show that:(1)Online positive feedback positively predict life satisfaction and positive emotions,and negatively predict depression,anxiety and negative emotions.(2)Trait self-esteem mediated the effects of online positive feedback on depression,anxiety and negative emotions,partially mediated the effects of online positive feedback on life satisfaction and positive emotions.In study 2,participants included 123 undergraduate students,the Ostracism Online paradigm was used to simulate the online positive feedback of real social media to manipulate the online positive feedback and further verify the mediating role of state self-esteem between online positive feedback and psychological adaptation.The results show that:(1)The Ostracism Online paradigm is successful in manipulating online positive feedback.Compared with the participants in high online positive feedback condition,those in low online positive feedback condition feel higher rejection and need threat.(2)Online positive feedback positively predict state self-esteem and positive emotions,negatively predict negative emotions.(3)State self-esteem partially mediated the effects of online positive feedback on positive emotions and negative emotions..In conclusion,self-esteem mediates the relationship between online positive feedback and college students’ psychological adaptation,but the effects are mostly derived from the between-person level,this effect can be verified in both general and instant social situations.The results enlighten researchers to pay attention to the influence of self-esteem in college students’ social media interaction,and have implications for practical practice and intervention of college psychologists.