ArticleJournal of youth and adolescence2025
Online Self-Presentation, Self-Concept Clarity, and Depressive Symptoms: A Within-Person Examination.
Article in Journal of youth and adolescence, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Negative Mental Health Consequences of Social Media Use in South Africa: The Role of Smartphone Addiction.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Digital self-presentation inauthenticity and psychological distress among youth: a combined serial and parallel mediation model through online social comparison, digital identity confusion, and fear of missing out.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Online authentic self-presentation, relatedness need satisfaction, and depression among university students: the moderating role of perceived value of team sports participation in a survey of universities in Shanghai.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The Role of False Self-Presentation and Social Comparison in Excessive Social Media Use.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Online Personas: Associations Between Focus on Self-Presentation and Social Comparison on Social Media and Mental Well-Being in Early Adolescence.International journal of public health · 2025Article
- The association between self-presentation on social network sites and interpersonal relationship satisfaction among high school students: the chain mediating role of self-esteem and self-identity.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although social media provides a crucial platform for self-development in emerging adulthood, the link between online self-presentation and mental health outcomes remains unclear. Thus, the associations among real self, ideal self, different types of false self-presentations, and depressive symptoms were examined over time (T1-T3) in the present study, along with the mediating role of self-concept clarity. Participants (N = 1,217, Mage = 18.14, 71% female-identifying) completed a survey three times over one year. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel modelling indicated that individuals presenting themselves authentically tended to demonstrate stronger self-concept clarity and fewer depressive symptoms. Those engaging in false-deceptive, compare/impress, and ideal self-presentation tended to have weaker self-concept clarity and more depressive symptoms. A within-person bidirectional association was found between false-deceptive self-presentation and depressive symptoms. Within-person increases in false-explore self-presentation predicted increases in depressive symptoms, whereas increases in compare/impress self-presentation predicted decreases in depressive symptoms. Self-concept clarity was not a significant mediator. The findings suggest that promoting authentic online self-presentation may support self-concept clarity and reduce risk of mental health challenges in emerging adults. However, engaging in false-deceptive online self-presentation (both greater than typical levels and compared to others) may increase risk of mental health challenges, and vice versa.
Indexed as
Identifiers
39604620What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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