| 其他摘要 | With the further strengthening of China's digital infrastructure construction, the abundance of information resources, and the continuous improvement of the network environment, it has promoted the high-quality development of the digital information communication industry. As of June 2023, the user base of Social media platforms in China (such as WeChat and QQ) has reached 1.047 billion, accounting for 97.1% of the overall Internet users. The widespread penetration of the Internet has led researchers, including psychologists, to increasingly focus on the impact of Social media usage on individual psychology and behavior. Existing research on the impact of Social media usage on psychology has largely focused on the "hedonic" subjective well-being, life satisfaction, self-esteem, among other aspects, while paying limited attention to the "eudaimonic" psychological well-being. Psychological well-being advocates that happiness is a process of individual self-realization, including autonomy, self-acceptance, environment master, positive relation with others, purpose in life and personal growth. The formation and validation of psychological well-being structures are based on solid theoretical foundations, which differ from the happiness concepts adopted, technological means employed, and issues addressed in subjective well-being research. Studying psychological well-being contributes to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the concept of happiness. Building upon this background, This study examine the influence of Social media usage on psychological well-being. Further examining the mediating role of online social support and the moderating effect of age, aiming to provide valuable insights into the influence of Internet social media on individual psychological well-being.
Preliminary study utilized self-collected data from 1931 participants, including 1035 young adults, 554 middle-aged adults, and 342 older adults, to validate the applicability of the "Online Social Support Scale" among adult populations across different age groups. The results show that: item analysis shows that the scale has good differentiation; Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four factors of the scale (including information support, friend support, emotional support and instrumental support) had good structural validity. The revised scale exhibits good criterion-related validity, with high levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The group confirmatory factor analysis validates the consistency of scale measurements among different genders and ages, ranging from the young to the elderly.This scale provides a standardized measurement tool for further investigation into online social support among adults of different age groups.
Formal study also used the above self-collected data to investigate the relationship between social media use and psychological well-being, and further explored the relationship mechanism between the two, that is, the mediating role of network social support and the moderating role of age. The results show that: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between social media use and psychological well-being and its sub-dimensions to varying degrees, that is, the higher the use of social media, the higher the psychological well-being. (2) Online social support plays a mediating role in the relationship between social media use and psychological well-being, that is, higher social media use will enhance psychological well-being by increasing perceived online support. (3) Age moderates the above mediating effect to a certain extent, that is, the enhancement effect of social media use on different dimensions of online social support is different among different age groups.Specifically, Compared to young adults, middle-aged adults showed a more significant enhancement effect of companion support obtained through social media use; Compared to young adults, older adults exhibited a more significant enhancement effect of information support and emotional support obtained through social media use; Relative to older adults, young adults demonstrated a more significant enhancement effect of instrumental support obtained through social media use.
This study overall validated the positive significance, mediating mechanisms, and boundary conditions of social media usage on psychological well-being. It expanded the research population of Social media usage and enriched the empirical research on "eudaimonic" psychological well-being. Additionally, it provided a standardized measurement tool for online social support applicable to adults of different age groups. Relevant findings provide empirical support for social capital theory, use-satisfaction theory and social-cognitive theory in the context of Internet use, and also provide practical guidance for Internet developers and managers to meet the psychological needs of social media users of different ages and promote their happiness. |
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