Does active social media use improve subjective well-being? - a mediation model

Authors Details :
Elena Stanculescu Professor University Of Bucharest

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Social media use is inherently linked to everyday life in the digital world, from professional contexts to leisure time. Prior research focused on antecedents of social media use such as personality traits, age, gender, social skills, and also on broad range of its various effects. Positive effects include extension of friendship network, diminishing anxiety in social interaction, and improving exercise motivation. Problematic social media use and addiction are related to stress, depression, suicidal thoughts, loneliness, and scarce school engagement. Less attention has been paid to the relationship between social media use and well-being. Inconsistent results were obtained; being emphasized either small relationship between time spent using social media and psychological well-being, or absence of significant correlation. Aims: Therefore, we analyzed in this research what degree and how active social media use and self-esteem would lead to subjective well-being. Starting from the necessary distinction between the passive and active social media use, the aim of this study was to analyze the direct and indirect effects of active use and self-esteem on subjective well-being. Method: Based on a cross-sectional design, the survey data was collected from a sample consisted of 653 participants (male = 274; M age = 21.52; SD = 4.33). To verify the hypothesized direct and indirect effects included in the multiple mediation model, a path analysis was performed. Results: The findings showed positive association between active social media use, self-esteem, affective engagement in social media use, sense to belong to online community, number of friends/followers, and subjective well-being, The path analysis revealed excellent fit between proposed mediation model and sample data. Active social media use has directly effect on subjective well-being, and indirectly via sense to belong to online community. Interaction between active social media use and self-esteem significantly predicts subjective well-being. The relationship between affective engagement in social media use and sense to belong to online community is mediated by number of friends or followers on social media platforms. Conclusion: The findings of this study extend the previous research, providing support for the relationship between active social media use and subjective well-being. Keywords: active social media use; number of friends/followers; affective engagement in social media use; sense to belong to online community; subjective well-being; mediation analysis.