No abstract

Two preregistered experiments with 2,733 U.S. high school students (age range = 13-19 years) compared the impact of different messages on adolescents' motivation to control social media use (SMU). A traditional message emphasized the benefits of avoiding SMU, whereas a values-alignment message framed controlling SMU as being consistent with autonomy and social justice. Compared to no message or a traditional message, in both studies, a values-alignment message led to greater motivation to control SMU immediately afterward, and in Study 2, awareness of "addictive" social media designs 3 months later. As hypothesized, values-alignment messaging was more motivating for girls than boys. Results offer preliminary support for leveraging adolescents' drives for autonomy and social justice to motivate self-regulation of SMU.

This study drew on the emotional cycle of deployment model to track the content, valence, and sequence of relationship changes experienced by returning service members and at-home partners during the transition from deployment to reintegration. In a longitudinal study, 555 military couples (1,100 individuals) wrote 7,387 comments describing changes that had occurred in their relationship during the past month. A content analysis identified 10 substantive categories: emotional intimacy, sexual intimacy, spending time together, appraisals of the relationship, life changes, readjustment to daily life, conflict, family changes, commitment, and reports of no change. The frequency of changes reported in emotional intimacy, sexual intimacy, readjustment to daily life, and conflict declined across the transition. In contrast, reports of life changes, and comments stating that no change had occurred, increased over time. Independent coders judged each change as positive (42.1%), negative (32.4%), or neutral (25.5%) in valence. Participants described fewer positive changes as the transition progressed, although this tendency slowed over time. In contrast, the frequency of negative changes remained stable across the transition, and the frequency of neutral changes increased. The findings are used to advance theory, research, policy, and intervention designed to help military couples negotiate relationship changes across the post-deployment transition.

Two laboratory experiments with undergraduates examined how social media desire emerges, intensifies, and can be altered. At the start of the experiment, participants submitted a Facebook status update and were led to believe that this would be posted and that responses to it would be monitored and logged over the course of the experiment. Desire to check Facebook increased following a subsequent 15-minute waiting period where participants heard sounds notifying them of friends responding to their status update, but they were not allowed to check the notifications. Moreover, reward simulations—mental elaborations about the positive aspects of checking social media—during the waiting period strengthened this desire. Both experiments also contrasted a group of participants who engaged in either a brief mindfulness, self-immersion, or, in Study 1, unfocused attention exercise during the 15-minute waiting period. Following the exercise, participants then adopted this new perspective while viewing and rating a Facebook advertisement (Study 1), or while performing a self-control task that allowed them to switch between practicing math skills or watching entertaining videos (Study 2). Participants in the mindfulness condition reported significantly less Facebook desire compared with participants in control conditions. Moreover, mindfulness led participants to report less positive attitudes about the Facebook advertisement (Study 1) and spend more time spent practicing math, as opposed to watching entertaining videos (Study 2). Reductions in reward simulations mediated these effects. These findings advance theoretical understanding of how social media desire unfolds and suggest ways for helping young adults manage these desires.