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Mobile social media use and self-identity among Chinese adolescents: The mediating effect of friendship quality and the moderating role of gender

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Abstract

Mobile Internet and social media have greatly changed the way that adolescents communicate. The current study investigated the effect of mobile social media use on adolescents’ self-identity, and explored the mediating role of friendship quality and the moderating role of gender. A total of 473 Chinese adolescents participated in the investigation. Results indicated that mobile social media used was positively correlated with adolescents’ self-identity and friendship quality. Moreover, friendship quality mediated the relationship between mobile social media use and adolescents’ self-identity. That is, adolescents’ mobile social media use was associated with a higher quality of friendship, which, in turn, contributed to their formation of self-identity. In addition, gender moderated the relation between mobile social media use and friendship quality, such that this relation was stronger for males than for females.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by 2016 key youth project of humanities and social science projects of higher education in Zhejiang Province(2016QN018); the Key Project of Social Science Fund of Zhejiang Provincial (18NDJC022Z); the Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Shanxi Province in 2018(2018B130); the Key Project of Social Science Fund of Beijing, China (15SHA005); Shanxi Provincial “1331 Project” Key Discipline Construction Plan 2017 Annual General Key Discipline Construction Project (Study on the Construction of Regional Characteristic Educational Resources in the Internet+ Background); 2019 research project on philosophy and social science of higher education in Shanxi Province (psychological health of phubbing group of primary and secondary school teachers and its influence on teacher-student relationship). We appreciate the constructive comments provided by Mingzhu Wang and all reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Shanxi Datong University, Datong, 037009, China

    Wei Wang

  2. College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100089, China

    Guoying Qian

  3. School of Educational Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China

    Xingchao Wang

  4. Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Li Lei

  5. College of Foreign Languages, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Qian Hu

  6. Development Planning Department, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Jing Chen

  7. Department of Applied Psychology in College of Psychiatry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Suo Jiang

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Wang, W., Qian, G., Wang, X. et al. Mobile social media use and self-identity among Chinese adolescents: The mediating effect of friendship quality and the moderating role of gender. Curr Psychol 40, 4479–4487 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00397-5

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