Niu Xiang, Gou Li-Xing, Han Ying, Zhou Xuan, Wang Jin-Liang
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Center for Mental Health Education, Nanchong Health School of Sichuan Province, Nanchong, China.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2025 Sep;43(3):611-628. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12538. Epub 2024 Dec 13.
The popularity of social networking sites increases opportunities for upward social comparison, potentially affecting individuals' subjective well-being. However, research on how this comparison impacts well-being's sub-components (i.e., positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) is scarce. This study, based on social comparison theory and the full theoretical construct of subjective well-being, explores these relationships and their mechanisms. A total of 970 Chinese youth participants (M = 19.42 years, SD = 2.01) completed self-report measures. The results showed that the independent mediating effect of envy and the chain mediating effect of self-concept clarity and envy contributed to all three models. In addition, the independent mediating effect of self-concept clarity only contributed to the model for negative affect. This study emphasizes that the construct of envy mediates the effect of upward social comparison on the sub-components of subjective well-being and further demonstrates a strong impact of upward social comparison on negative affect.
社交网站的普及增加了向上社会比较的机会，可能会影响个人的主观幸福感。然而，关于这种比较如何影响幸福感的子成分（即积极情绪、消极情绪和生活满意度）的研究却很少。本研究基于社会比较理论和主观幸福感的完整理论架构，探讨了这些关系及其机制。共有970名中国青年参与者（M = 19.42岁，SD = 2.01）完成了自我报告测量。结果表明，嫉妒的独立中介效应以及自我概念清晰度和嫉妒的链式中介效应在所有三个模型中均起作用。此外，自我概念清晰度的独立中介效应仅在消极情绪模型中起作用。本研究强调，嫉妒这一构念介导了向上社会比较对主观幸福感子成分的影响，并进一步证明了向上社会比较对消极情绪有强烈影响。
