Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 11;10:1062688. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1062688. eCollection 2022.
Social media use was previously characterized as both a maladaptive coping mechanism, and a source of engagement with peers, suggesting an ambivalent effect. The present study explored how adolescents might use social media as a coping mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a multidimensional perspective on well-being.
Our sample consisted of 259 Romanian teenagers aged 11-16 ( = 13.38, = 0.93, 57% males). We investigated the potential indirect effect of social media use, i.e., its cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions on the relationship between depressive symptoms and adolescents' well-being.
Across all mediation analyses, our results suggested that social media use positively predicted adolescents' well-being. Given the multidimensional approach to both social media use and well-being, our findings suggested that adolescents' well-being was predicted not only by actual social media use behaviors but also by cognitions related to the expectation of receiving gratification on social media and the intense affective states related to the desire to use social media. Also, our data suggested that adolescents with high levels of depressive symptoms might be more likely to capitalize on social media use and have expectations related to receiving approval from others in the context of social media use.
Depressive symptoms might be more relevant when explaining the cognitive and affective involvement during social media use. However, their ability to predict the actual social media use behaviors may be limited. Furthermore, adolescents that present depressive symptoms might be more prone to use social media, in order to improve their well-being.
社交媒体的使用以前被描述为一种适应不良的应对机制，也是与同龄人互动的一种来源，这表明它具有矛盾的影响。本研究从幸福感的多维视角探讨了青少年在 COVID-19 大流行期间如何可能将社交媒体用作应对机制。
我们的样本由 259 名 11-16 岁的罗马尼亚青少年组成（ = 13.38， = 0.93，57%为男性）。我们研究了社交媒体使用（即认知、情感和行为维度）对抑郁症状与青少年幸福感之间关系的潜在间接影响。
在所有中介分析中，我们的结果表明，社交媒体的使用正向预测了青少年的幸福感。鉴于社交媒体使用和幸福感的多维方法，我们的研究结果表明，青少年的幸福感不仅受到实际社交媒体使用行为的预测，还受到与在社交媒体上获得满足的期望相关的认知以及与使用社交媒体的强烈情感状态相关的认知的预测。此外，我们的数据表明，抑郁症状较高的青少年可能更倾向于利用社交媒体，并在社交媒体使用的背景下对获得他人的认可抱有期望。
在解释社交媒体使用过程中的认知和情感投入时，抑郁症状可能更为相关。然而，它们预测实际社交媒体使用行为的能力可能有限。此外，患有抑郁症状的青少年可能更倾向于使用社交媒体来改善他们的幸福感。
