Abstract
Social network sites (SNSs) allow young people to experiment with and present different aspects of themselves during important periods of self-concept development. Interestingly, whether SNSs have negative or positive effects on self-concept clarity (SCC) is inconclusive. We propose that SNS use may simultaneously produce negative and positive effects on SCC, depending on how people use it and the social connection quality created on-line. Specifically, the suppressing mediation model reveals that the direct effect of SNS use intensity on SCC is negative, whereas the indirect effects via perceived social support and self-esteem are positive, suggesting these variables may suppress the negative effect of SNS use on SCC. Our framework helps to explain how SNS contexts influence identity development in young people.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 406-429 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Self and Identity |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Social Science Planning Project of Shandong Province (21DJYJ06), the Youth Project of the 13th Five-Year Plan of Education Science in Shandong Province (2020QZD003), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019MC048). We thank Dr. Zhonglin Wen for the helpful comments on the earlier draft of this work, and thank Dr. Jianling Ma for his helpful suggestions on data analyses. We also would like to thank the editor and three anonymous experts for their very constructive comments and feedback on this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- identity
- self-concept clarity
- self-esteem
- Social network site
- social support