Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
Institute of Psychology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
Psychiatry Res. 2020 Oct;292:113323. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113323. Epub 2020 Jul 24.
Previous research warned that internet and social media use could have a negative effect on the social lives of excessive users. Based on the social compensation hypothesis, however, factors related to social fears could lead to problematic social networking site (SNS) use because individuals try to compensate for their offline popularity. It was shown that individuals with higher levels of social fears tend to prefer computer-mediated (CMC) instead of face to face (FTF) communication. Here, we aimed to create a model that shows the direct and indirect effects of social anxiety and self-esteem on problematic SNS use. A total of 215 participants filled out our survey including measures of social anxiety, self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation, social media and Internet addiction. Using structural equation modeling we tested the indirect and direct effects between the variables. Our results indicated that social anxiety and lower self-esteem could lead to favoring CMC over FTF communication, which may result in problematic internet (PIU) and SNS use as a compensatory behavior to cope with fear of negative evaluation. The indirect pathways might highlight relevant differences behind the motivation of PIU - anonymity - and problematic SNS use - control. Theoretical as well as practical implications are discussed.
先前的研究警告称，互联网和社交媒体的使用可能会对过度使用者的社交生活产生负面影响。然而，根据社会补偿假说，与社交恐惧相关的因素可能会导致社交网络问题，因为个体试图弥补线下的人气。研究表明，社交恐惧程度较高的个体往往更喜欢计算机媒介（CMC）交流而非面对面（FTF）交流。在这里，我们旨在建立一个模型，展示社交焦虑和自尊对社交网络问题使用的直接和间接影响。共有 215 名参与者填写了我们的调查，包括社交焦虑、自尊、负面评价恐惧、社交媒体和网络成瘾的测量。我们使用结构方程模型测试了变量之间的间接和直接影响。我们的结果表明，社交焦虑和较低的自尊可能导致个体更倾向于CMC 交流而非 FTF 交流，这可能导致网络成瘾（PIU）和社交网络问题使用作为应对负面评价恐惧的补偿行为。间接途径可能突出了 PIU 背后的动机的相关差异——匿名性——以及社交网络问题使用的动机——控制。讨论了理论和实际意义。
