Using Social Media for Social Comparison and Feedback-Seeking: Gender and Popularity Moderate Associations with Depressive Symptoms

By Jacqueline Nesi, Mitchell J. Prinstein. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 2015

668 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This study examined specific technology-based behaviors (social comparison and interpersonal feedback-seeking) that may interact with offline individual characteristics to predict concurrent depressive symptoms among adolescents. A total of 619 students (57 % female; mean age 14.6) completed self-report questionnaires at 2 time points. Adolescents reported on levels of depressive symptoms at baseline, and 1 year later on depressive symptoms, frequency of technology use (cell phones, Facebook, and Instagram), excessive reassurance-seeking, and technology-based social comparison and feedback-seeking. Adolescents also completed sociometric nominations of popularity. Consistent with hypotheses, technology-based social comparison and feedback-seeking were associated with depressive symptoms. Popularity and gender served as moderators of this effect, such that the association was particularly strong among females and adolescents low in popularity. Associations were found above and beyond the effects of overall frequency of technology use, offline excessive reassurance-seeking, and prior depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the utility of examining the psychological implications of adolescents’ technology use within the framework of existing interpersonal models of adolescent depression and suggest the importance of more nuanced approaches to the study of adolescents’ media use.

Subfields: Communication, Education, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/78f9bd3931d6779fc952132815aa941ea98aba66

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Citations in the corpus

Passive social networking site use and well-being: The mediating roles of social comparison and the fear of missing out (2019, methodology): “The ten-item Comparison and Feedback-Seeking scale (Nesi, 2014; Nesi & Prinstein, 2015) was used to measure participants’ engagement of technology-based social comparisons and feedback-seeking behaviors.”
The Longitudinal Association Between Social-Media Use and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: An Empirical Reply to Twenge et al. (2018) (2019, result): “Research on the link between depressive symptoms and social-media use in particular has been primarily cross-sectional, or involving studies with multiple time points that did not allow for an assessment of change over time (e.g., Booker, Kelly, & Sacker, 2018; Nesi & Prinstein, 2015).”
Love me Tinder: Untangling emerging adults' motivations for using the dating application Tinder (2017, positive): “In addition, individuals use social media platforms to satisfy psychosocial needs related to selfworth, such as validating the sexual attractiveness of one’s own appearance and feeling better about oneself in general (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015; Yurchisin, Watchravesringkan, & McCabe, 2005).”
Social Media and Depressive Symptoms in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review (2017, background): “In the study of social comparison and feedback-seeking and depressive symptoms by Nesi and Prinstein (2015), a statistically significant relationship was found between these online behaviors at baseline and depression 12 months later.”
The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression (2016, background): “Current Opinion in Psychology 2016, 9:44–49 in opposite directions [25 ,32].”
Upward social comparison on social network sites and depressive symptoms: A moderated mediation model of self-esteem and optimism (2017, background): “Research showed that upward social comparison on SNSs was positively associated with depressive symptoms (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015), and envy on SNSs positively predicted symptoms of depression (Tandoc et al., 2015).”
How and Why Social Media Affect Subjective Well-Being: Multi-Site Use and Social Comparison as Predictors of Change Across Time (2020, background): “While these findings focus on Facebook, other social network sites afford the opportunity for upward social comparison; for example, greater use of Instagram has also been associated with comparing oneself to others and to increased depressive symptoms (Nesi and Prinstein 2015; Lup et al. 2015).”
Passive social network site use and subjective well-being among Chinese university students: A moderated mediation model of envy and gender (2017, background): “Empirically, one study found that gender moderated the relationship between using social media for social comparison and depressive symptoms, with the association being particularly strong for females compared to males (Nesi & Prinstein, 2015).”