Open Access

ARTICLE

A Study on the Influence of Social Media Use on Psychological Anxiety among Young Women

Tao Liu¹, Huiyin Shi¹, Chen Chen^1,*, Rong Fu^2,*

1 Department of Sociology, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China
2 College of Economics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

* Corresponding Authors: Chen Chen. Email: ; Rong Fu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Social Stress, Adversity, and Mental Health in Transitional China)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2024, 26(3), 199-209. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2024.046303

Received 26 September 2023; Accepted 19 February 2024; Issue published 08 April 2024

Abstract

To explore the relationship between social influence, social comparison, clarity of self-concept, and psychological anxiety among young women during their usage of social networking sites, our study selected 338 young women aged 14–34 from the social site platforms of Little Red Book and Weibo for questionnaire surveys. The Passive Social Network Utilization Scale, Social Comparison Scale (SCS), Social Influence Questionnaire, Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) were employed to measure the subjects. Our results show that the frequency of passive social media use is positively related to the level of psychological anxiety. Social comparison, social influence, and unclear self-concepts under social media use are negatively predictive of psychological anxiety. The chain mediation effects indicate that social comparison and social influence under social media use negatively predict the clarity of self-concept, thus having a negative impact on the psychological health of young women. Therefore, young women should strengthen their self-concepts, control their frequency of social media usage, avoid addiction, and pay special attention to their frequency of passive use, in order to protect their psychological health. Our study provides some practical implications and insights regarding the relationship between young women’s social media use and psychological health.

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Keywords

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