How Passive Social Networking Sites Usage Correlated With Adolescent Social Anxiety

According to the Pew Research Center,among the American adolescents,about 71%use at least one kind of social networking sites(SNSs)and 60%spend averagely two hours daily on those SNSs.In the meanwhile,47.8%of Chinese adolescents reported that they log on SNSs every day.The extensive prevalence of SNSs among the global adolescents,and its impact on adolescent mental health have aroused scholarly attention.Researchers have distinguished two patterns of SNSs usage:active use and passive use,so as to further clarify the influence of SNSs on individuals.Active use is more likely beneficial for mental health,such as expanding individual social capital and improving subjective well-being,whereas passive use often related to more adverse effects,such as lower self-esteem,body image concerns,higher anxiety,and interpersonal problems.Based on the prior research related to the impacts of passive use of SNSs on adolescent mental health and the characteristics of adolescents,the present study aimed to verify the relationship between the passive use of SNSs and adolescent social anxiety and probe the mediation effect of body image disturbance,and explore an effective group intervention methods to alleviate adolescent social anxiety.In the study 1,745 adolescents from 3 secondary schools in Wuhan completed the questionnaires on passive use of SNSs,body image disturbance and social anxiety.Based on study 1,study 2 adopted group counseling of cognitive dissonance-based body image intervention to test whether such intervention could significantly reduce adolescent social anxiety.SPSS 24.0 and SPSS PROCESS were used to collect and analyze all the data.After controlling for gender,grade and BMI,the results indicated:(1)except passive use of SNSs,body image disturbance and adolescent social anxiety had significant BMI effect,and all variables had significant main effects of gender and grade;(2)passive use of SNSs,body image disturbance,and adolescent social anxiety were positively correlated with each other;(3)passive use of SNSs could positively predict the level of adolescent social anxiety,the more passive use of SNSs,the more social anxiety among adolescents;(4)body image disturbance partially mediated the relationship between passive use of SNSs and adolescent social anxiety.Specifically,passive use of SNSs positively predicted body disturbance,the more passive use of SNSs,the more body image disturbance.Body image disturbance positively predicted social anxiety,the more body image disturbance,the more adolescent social anxiety.(5)the group counseling of cognitive dissonance-based body image intervention didn’t significantly reduce the body image disturbance,but significantly reduced adolescent social anxiety.Theoretically,those results deepen our understanding towards the relationship between passive use of SNSs and adolescent social anxiety,revealed the mediation role of body image disturbance,enriching the Tripartite Influence Model and the Cognitive-behavioral model of social anxiety.Practically,the present study tested the intervention effect of dissonance-based body image intervention on social anxiety of adolescent girls,which not only extended dissonance-based body image intervention to emotional domain,but also has a certain enlightenment and reference value for alleviating adolescent social anxiety and maintaining adolescent mental health.Although the present correlational research supporting the mediation effect of body image disturbance between passive use of SNSs and adolescent social anxiety,more longitudinal and experimental studies are needed.