The impact of daily stress on adolescents’ depressed mood: The role of social support seeking through Facebook

Abstract

This study examined relationships among daily stress (i.e., school-and family-related stress), social support seeking through Facebook, perceived social support through Facebook, and depressed mood among adolescents (N = 910). Structural equation modeling showed that daily stress positively predicted adolescents' seeking of social support through Facebook. In addition, when social support was sought on Facebook and subsequently perceived, social support seeking through Facebook decreased adolescents' depressed mood. However, when social support was sought on Facebook, but not perceived, social support seeking through Facebook increased adolescents' depressed mood. When comparing these relationships with similar relationships in a traditional social support context, results showed that the exacerbating impact of social support seeking on depressed mood exclusively transpires in a social networking site context. The discussion focuses on the understanding and explanation of these findings, and directions for future research.

Exploring the Relationships Between Different Types of Facebook Use, Perceived Online Social Support, and Adolescents’ Depressed Mood

“…More specifically, people with strong offline relationships are more likely to actively use SNSs, because active SNS use is more useful for the maintenance of these relationships Given that active Facebook use is expected to facilitate supportive interaction among adolescent users, the question arises whether this type of social support (i.e., online social support) has the same positive impact as face-to-face supportive interactions on adolescents' well-being. Despite evidence that perceived social support negatively affects adolescents' depressive symptoms (e.g., Murberg & Bru, 2004;Rueger et al, 2010), only few studies (e.g., FACEBOOK USE, ONLINE SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND ADOLESCENTS' DEPRESSED MOOD 9 Frison & Eggermont, 2015;Oh, Ozkaya, & LaRose, 2014;Wright, 2012) have focused on the impact of perceived online social support. Frison and Eggermont (2015), for instance, found the positive impact of perceived Facebook social support on adolescents' well-being (i.e., depressed mood) to be similar to the impact of face-to-face supportive interactions.…”

“…Despite evidence that perceived social support negatively affects adolescents' depressive symptoms (e.g., Murberg & Bru, 2004;Rueger et al, 2010), only few studies (e.g., FACEBOOK USE, ONLINE SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND ADOLESCENTS' DEPRESSED MOOD 9 Frison & Eggermont, 2015;Oh, Ozkaya, & LaRose, 2014;Wright, 2012) have focused on the impact of perceived online social support. Frison and Eggermont (2015), for instance, found the positive impact of perceived Facebook social support on adolescents' well-being (i.e., depressed mood) to be similar to the impact of face-to-face supportive interactions. This positive impact of online social support on adolescents' well-being can be explained by the main effects model of social support (Cohen & Wills, 1985), which argues that social support directly affects individuals' well-being, independent of the amount of stress one experiences.…”

“…Therefore, based on the rich get richer hypothesis (Kraut et al, 2002), the direct or main effects hypothesis (Cohen & Wills, 1985) and empirical findings (e.g., Aubrey & Rill, 2013;Frison & Eggermont, 2015), we propose the following hypothesis: [ Figure 1 about here]…”

“…One important mechanism is perceived social support (i.e., social interaction through which emotional concerns, instrumental aid, or information is perceived, Dunkel-Schetter & Brooks, 2009), as studies have found a positive relationship between SNS use and adolescents' perceptions of online social support (e.g., Liu & Yu, 2013) and perceived online social support in turn has been negatively related with young people's well-being (e.g., Frison & Eggermont, 2015). Therefore, the current study aims to explore the mediating role of perceived online social support within the relationship between specific types of Facebook use and adolescents' depressed mood.…”

A problémás internethasználat pszichoszociális háttértényezői és prevenciós lehetőségei

“…Ha azonban a felhasználók nem kapják meg online sem a keresett társas támogatást, akkor az fokozza a depressziót (Frison és Eggermont, 2015). A félénkebb személyekre jellemző, hogy szívesebben alakítanak ki online ismeretségeket (Sheeks és Birchmeier, 2007), illetve azok is magasabb számú cyber-barátságra tesznek szert, akik a külső megjelenésükkel, fizikai vonzerejükkel nincsenek megelégedve (Ando és Sakamoto, 2008).…”