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Active Social Network Sites Use and Loneliness: the Mediating Role of Social Support and Self-Esteem

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Abstract

A growing body of research has documented the association between general social network sites use and loneliness, though results have not clarified whether social media increases or decreases loneliness. The relationships between specific social network sites use patterns and loneliness, as well as the mechanisms underlying this association, should be further examined. To address this issue, the current study investigated the mediating roles of social support and self-esteem between active social network sites use and loneliness. A sample of 390 undergraduate students (Mage = 19.39, SD = 0.95) anonymously completed the Active Social Network Sites Use Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Scale, and the Emotional and Social Loneliness Scale in their classrooms. Latent variables structural equation modeling analysis indicated that: (a) active social network sites use was negatively associated with loneliness; (b) social support and self-esteem could significantly mediate the relationship between active social network sites use and loneliness, which contained two mediating paths: the simple mediating effect of social support and the sequential mediating effects of social support and self-esteem. These results coincide with previous research and extend them by examining the effects of how individuals use social media. Our understanding of how social media use helps to reduce the feeling of loneliness, as well as the intervention programs that aim to reduce loneliness, may benefit from these findings.

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Acknowledgements

The first author wants to express his sincere gratitude to the unconditional support and encouragement from Mr. Jiazhen Lin and Mrs. Daimei Li.

Funding

This work was supported by the “S-Tech academic support program – Internet psychology project” of S-tech studio of Tencent Research Institute awarded to Shanyan Lin with no Grant number, and the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [Grant number 19YJC190019].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience of Shaanxi Province, & School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China

    Shanyan Lin

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Shanyan Lin & Claudio Longobardi

  3. Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Danni Liu

  4. School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

    Gengfeng Niu

  5. Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, (Central China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China

    Gengfeng Niu

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  1. Shanyan Lin
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Correspondence to Shanyan Lin or Gengfeng Niu.

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Lin, S., Liu, D., Niu, G. et al. Active Social Network Sites Use and Loneliness: the Mediating Role of Social Support and Self-Esteem. Curr Psychol 41, 1279–1286 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00658-8

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