青少年社交网站使用对自我概念清晰性的影响：社会比较的中介作用

The Effect of Adolescents' Social Networking Site Use on Self-concept Clarity: The Mediating Role of Social Comparison

为探讨青少年的社交网站使用和社会比较对自我概念清晰性的影响及其作用机制,采用社交网站使用强度问卷、社会比较倾向问卷和自我概念清晰问卷对697名中学生进行调查,结果发现:(1)社交网站使用强度和社会比较倾向呈显著正相关,而社交网站使用强度和社会比较倾向都与自我概念清晰性呈显著负相关。(2)社交网站使用对自我概念清晰性不仅有显著的直接预测效应,还能通过社会比较倾向的间接作用对自我概念清晰性产生影响。

With its rapid rise and popularity among people all over the world, social networking sites have become an important platform for interpersonal interactions, and the impact of social networking sites＇ use has also become a focus of relevant research scholars. Social networking sites, aimed at encouraging people to build and maintain a network of friends, provide a necessarily supplementary way to interact with others, which has an important effect on individuals＇ psychological and social adaption. Research has revealed that the use of social networking sites could increase an individual＇s social capital, reduce an individual＇s loneliness and promote life satisfaction and subjective well-being. But some researchers have also found inconsistent results： the use of social networking sites was significantly and negatively correlated with self-esteem and happiness as well as significantly and positively correlated with depression. For these inconsistent results, researchers have pointed out that the impact of social networking sites＇ use on individual may be affected by other variables. At the same time, current research is mainly focusing on the impact of social networking sites＇ use on an individual＇s psychosocial adaptation. However, the core developmental task of adolescents, i.e., the formation and development of self, has not had enough attention. Previous studies have pointed out that individuals could construct themselves through self-presentation and self-exploration on social networking sites because social networking sites could provide teenagers with an ideal self-exploration space. Valkenburg and Peter （2011） outlined the self-concept fragmentation hypothesis： the opportunities that the Internet can offer individuals to interact with many different people in diverse online environments （in some cases adopting a different personality） undermined their ability to coordinate the multiple facets of themselves into a coherent whole. This hypothesis has been confirmed by several studies. The results indicated that： （1） Social networking site use was positively correlated with social comparison orientation, but social networking site use and social comparison orientation were negatively correlated with self-concept clarity. （2） The mediating effect of social comparison orientation was significant in social networking site use＇s effect on self-concept clarity. Not only could social networking site use significantly predict self-concept clarity, but it could also affect self-concept clarity through the mediating role of social comparison orientation. This indicated that though social networking site use has a positive effect on an individuals＇ psychological and social adaption, it also has a negative impact on an individual＇s selfdevelopment. This seemingly contradictory result reflects the different aspects of social networking site use＇s effect on individuals. It suggests that we should attach great importance to the variables affecting social networking sites use＇s effect on individuals and guide teenagers to view friends＇ information on social networking sites objectively and reasonably.