ArticleCurrent issues in personality psychology2021
The effects of social comparison on the relationships among social media addiction, self-esteem, and general belongingness levels.
Article in Current issues in personality psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationships between problematic social media use and social comparison: a meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Social Media Use Intensity and Social Media Use Problems in Relation to Interpersonal Adaptation During the Transition to College: An Intensive Longitudinal Study.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Exploring the psychological dynamics of intensive smartphone use among university students: a phenomenological study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The impact of social media use on college students' mental health: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- The impact self-esteem towards the orthodontic issues in the social media: a cross-sectional study.BMC oral health · 2025Observational
- Exploring smartphone utilization patterns, addiction, and associated factors in school-going adolescents: A mixed-method study.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- The Effects of Social Media Addiction, Academic Stress, and Sleep Quality on Anxiety Symptoms: A Cross-Sectional Study of Chinese Vocational Students.Psychology research and behavior management · 2025Article
- Distress disclosure on social media and depressive symptoms among college students: the roles of social comparison and gender.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Generalized Problematic Internet Use Scale 2 in a Polish sample: psychometric validation and relationship with specific Internet-related disorders and psychosocial functioning.Current issues in personality psychology · 2023Article
- Self-esteem only goes so far: the moderating effect of social media screen time on self-esteem and depressive symptoms.Behaviour & information technology · 2023Article
- Impulsiveness as potential moderators of the relation between social media dependence and eating disorders risk.BMC psychology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSocial media addiction (SM) is a widespread and severe problem in today's world. It is associated with both self-esteem (SE) and general belongingness (GB). There are many studies related to these associations in the literature, but in this research an attempt was made to explain this mechanism based on social comparison theory. The aim of this study is to examine the indirect effect of social comparison (SC) on the relationship among SM, SE, and GB. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The sample consisted of 311 university students studying at a state university in Turkey. Data were gathered by using a demographic information form, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the General Belongingness Scale, the Social Comparison Scale, and the Social Media Addiction Scale-Student Form. The mediator effect of SC was determined via structural equation modelling.
resultsThe results indicate that SC has an indirect effect on the relation between SM and SE. Similarly, SC has an indirect effect on the relation between SM and GB.
conclusionsPeople tend to compare themselves with other individuals, and this SC process can be made very easily and quickly via social media tools. Moreover, social media sites offer plenty of opportunities for SC, and this comparison consists of sometimes upward SC and sometimes downward SC processes. Downward and upward SC processes can regulate individuals' emotions, SE, and GB levels in social media either in a negative or positive way. The mediating role of SC in the relationship between SM, SE, and GB can be examined in terms of these upward and downward SC processes.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.