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The Impact of Social Media on Social Comparison and Envy in Teenagers: The Moderating Role of the Parent Comparing Children and In-group Competition among Friends

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Abstract

Teenagers tend to gravitate towards a group that is highly susceptible to negative psychological and behavioral outcomes from social media use. Because teenagers’ behaviors are easily shaped by the social context to which they belong, it is likely that parents and friends might be the key persons who have a strong influence on the behavioral outcomes that teenagers develop from social media use. Given the concern about the negative consequences of social media use by teenagers, this research aims to explore the relationship between social media use intensity and the tendency of teenagers to engage in social comparison and envy. Survey data were collected from 250 teenagers using a snowball sampling. Results from a partial least-squares regression showed that the positive relationship between social media use intensity and envy was significantly higher in teenagers whose parents compared children and teenagers in a peer-group which was characterized by high in-group competition. However, the positive relationship that social media use intensity had with social comparison was significantly higher only in teenagers who are in a peer-group characterized by a high in-group competition.

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  1. International College, National Institute of Development Administration 118 Moo 3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok, 10240, Thailand

    Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

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Correspondence to Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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The ethical committee of the International College of the National Institute of Development Administration approved the research and data collection procedure. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Charoensukmongkol, P. The Impact of Social Media on Social Comparison and Envy in Teenagers: The Moderating Role of the Parent Comparing Children and In-group Competition among Friends. J Child Fam Stud 27, 69–79 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0872-8

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