Le Blanc-Brillon Justine, Fortin Jean-Simon, Lafrance Livia, Hétu Sébastien
Laboratory NECS, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur le Cerveau et l'Apprentissage, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2025 Aug 8;16:1597241. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1597241. eCollection 2025.
Social networking sites (SNSs) have become an integral part of daily life, raising concerns about their potential impact on mental health. One key mechanism through which SNSs may affect wellbeing is social comparison. The present research aimed to examine the mediating role of social comparisons (upward and downward) in the relationship between SNSs use and self-esteem (global and physical).
Study 1 ( = 139; female 51%; 73% White), conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, tested whether perceived exposure to social comparisons mediated the relationship between Instagram use and self-esteem.
Results revealed that upward comparisons mediated the association between Instagram use and lower global self-esteem, but no significant mediation was found for physical self-esteem. Study 2 ( = 413; 58% female; 62% White), conducted post-pandemic, extended these findings by including two SNSs (Instagram and Facebook), the extremity of upward comparisons (how far superior the comparison target is perceived to be), social feedback (responses or evaluations from others) and measures of depressive symptoms. As expected, exposure to upward comparisons negatively mediated the relationship between SNSs use and self-esteem (both global and physical), and positively mediated the relationship between SNSs use and depressive symptoms. However, contrary to our hypothesis, frequent SNSs users engaged in less extreme upward comparisons, partially buffering the negative impact of extreme upward comparisons.
Together, these findings highlight the crucial role of both exposure to and extremity of upward social comparisons in the complex relationship between SNSs use and mental health. These two factors contribute significantly though modestly to the effects of SNSs on self-esteem and depressive symptoms ( between 6 and 9%), underscoring the need for further research on individual and contextual variables that may mitigate their adverse psychological consequences.
社交网站（SNS）已成为日常生活中不可或缺的一部分，引发了人们对其对心理健康潜在影响的担忧。社交网站可能影响幸福感的一个关键机制是社会比较。本研究旨在探讨社会比较（向上和向下）在社交网站使用与自尊（整体自尊和身体自尊）之间关系中的中介作用。
研究1（n = 139；51%为女性；73%为白人）在新冠疫情期间进行，测试了感知到的社会比较暴露是否介导了Instagram使用与自尊之间的关系。
结果显示，向上比较介导了Instagram使用与较低的整体自尊之间的关联，但未发现对身体自尊有显著的中介作用。研究2（n = 413；58%为女性；62%为白人）在疫情后进行，通过纳入两个社交网站（Instagram和Facebook）、向上比较的极端程度（感知到的比较目标优越程度）、社会反馈（他人的回应或评价）以及抑郁症状测量，扩展了这些发现。正如预期的那样，接触向上比较对社交网站使用与自尊（整体自尊和身体自尊）之间的关系起到了负向中介作用，对社交网站使用与抑郁症状之间的关系起到了正向中介作用。然而，与我们的假设相反，频繁使用社交网站的用户进行的极端向上比较较少，部分缓冲了极端向上比较的负面影响。
总之，这些发现凸显了向上社会比较的暴露和极端程度在社交网站使用与心理健康之间复杂关系中的关键作用。这两个因素虽对社交网站对自尊和抑郁症状的影响贡献不大（贡献率在6%至9%之间），但仍强调了对可能减轻其不良心理后果的个体和情境变量进行进一步研究的必要性。
