Does Facebook Use Provide Social Benefits to Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury?

Drawing on the social compensation hypothesis, this study investigates whether Facebook use facilitates social connectedness for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), a common and debilitating medical condition that often results in social isolation. In a survey (N = 104 participants; n = 53 with TBI, n = 51 without TBI), individuals with TBI reported greater preference for self-disclosure on Facebook (vs. face-to-face) compared to noninjured individuals. For noninjured participants, a preference for Facebook self-disclosure was associated with the enactment of relational maintenance behaviors on Facebook, which was then associated with greater closeness with Facebook friends. However, no such benefits emerged for individuals with TBI, whose preference for Facebook self-disclosure was not associated with relationship maintenance behaviors on Facebook, and did not lead to greater closeness with Facebook friends. These findings show that the social compensation hypothesis has partial utility in the novel context of TBI, and suggest the need for developing technological supports to assist this vulnerable population on social media platforms.

International students' psychosocial well-being and social media use at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis.

This study examined the link between the psychosocial well-being and social media use of international students in the US at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when social isolation was mandated. Unlike prior research, which has typically focused on a single aspect of psychosocial well-being, we conceptualized international students' well-being as a multidimensional construct including internalizing symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, loneliness) as well as markers of intercultural difficulties. We then investigated social media use as a function of international students' idiosyncratic well-being vulnerabilities. A latent profile analysis revealed four groups with distinctive psychosocial profiles: well-adjusted students, interculturally adjusted students with internalizing symptoms, students with low internalizing symptoms but high intercultural difficulties, and maladjusted students with high internalizing symptoms and high intercultural difficulties. Supporting the social compensation perspective, maladjusted international students reported the highest engagement with social media compared to the other groups. These findings shed light on the unique and heterogenous experiences of international students at the onset of the pandemic. They also add nuance to the social compensation hypothesis by delineating person-specific associations between psychosocial well-being and social media use.

Online dating and psychological wellbeing: A social compensation perspective.

This article reviews evidence for the social compensation hypothesis of online dating, according to which individuals who experience challenges with traditional dating gravitate towards and benefit from online dating. Three categories of psychosocial vulnerabilities that interfere with the initiation of romantic relationships are identified: 1) internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxiety, depression); 2) rejection sensitivity; and 3) attachment insecurity (i.e., anxiety, avoidance). The literature shows positive associations between anxiety, depression, rejection sensitivity, and attachment anxiety (but not avoidance) and online dating use. But significant lacunae exist in understanding the relational and wellbeing outcomes experienced by individuals with these psychosocial vulnerabilities, or of the mechanism through which vulnerabilities cause enhanced use of online dating. A detailed agenda for future research is proposed.

The Role of Mental Well-Being and Perceived Parental Supportiveness in Adolescents' Problematic Internet Use: Moderation Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Given the growing number of adolescents exhibiting problematic internet use (PIU) and experiencing its harmful consequences, it is important to examine the factors associated with PIU. Existing research has identified perceived parental supportiveness and adolescents' subjective mental well-being as strong predictors of PIU. However, it is unknown how these factors work together in shaping adolescents' engagement in PIU. OBJECTIVE: This paper aimed to examine the role played by adolescents' perception of parental supportiveness in conjunction with their subjective mental well-being in shaping their PIU. METHODS: The study analyzed one of the Technology & Adolescent Mental Wellness (TAM) data sets that were collected from a nationally representative cross-sectional sample. Adolescents self-reported their internet use behavior, perceived parental supportiveness, and subjective mental well-being through an online research panel survey. Hierarchical linear regression analysis with an interaction term was performed. RESULTS: A total of 4592 adolescents, aged 12 to 17 years, completed the survey. Adolescents reported a mean age of 14.61 (SD 1.68) and were 46.4% (2130/4592) female and 66.9% (3370/4592) White. Findings revealed that, controlling for adolescents' demographics and social media use, higher levels of perceived parental supportiveness (ß=-.285, P<.001) and higher levels of subjective mental well-being (ß=-.079, P<.001) were associated with a lower likelihood of adolescent PIU. The moderation analysis showed that the negative association between perceived parental supportiveness and PIU was stronger when adolescents reported high (vs low) levels of mental well-being (ß=-.191, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that perceived parental supportiveness was a stronger protective factor than adolescents' mental well-being against PIU. The protective power of perceived parental supportiveness against PIU was strongest when adolescents had high mental well-being. The highest risk of PIU occurred when adolescents' mental well-being was high, but parents were perceived as unsupportive. Our findings suggest that parental supportiveness should be targeted as part of PIU prevention efforts.

Effects of Web-Based Social Connectedness on Older Adults' Depressive Symptoms: A Two-Wave Cross-Lagged Panel Study.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are the most prevalent mental health concern among older adults (possibly heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic), which raises questions about how such symptoms can be lowered in this population. Existing research shows that offline social connectedness is a protective factor against depression in older adults; however, it is unknown whether web-based social connectedness can have similar effects. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates whether social connectedness on a support website protects older adults against depressive symptoms over the course of a year, above and beyond the protective effect of offline social connectedness. The secondary aim is to determine whether older adults with increased depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in social connectedness on this website. Thus, we examine depressive symptoms as both an outcome and predictor of web-based social connectedness to fully understand the chain of causality among these variables. Finally, we compare web-based social connectedness with offline social connectedness in their ability to lower depressive symptoms among older adults. METHODS: A total of 197 adults aged 65 years or older were given access to a social support website, where they were able to communicate with each other via a discussion forum for a year. Participants' social connectedness on the web-based platform, conceptualized as message production and consumption, was measured using behavioral log data as the number of messages participants wrote and read, respectively, during the first 6 months (t1) and the following 6 months (t2) of the study. Participants self-reported their offline social connectedness as the number of people in their support networks, and they reported their depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 both at baseline (t1) and at 12-month follow-up (t2). To ascertain the flow of causality between these variables, we employed a cross-lagged panel design, in which all variables were measured at t1 and t2. RESULTS: After controlling for the effect of offline support networks at t1, web-based message consumption at t1 decreased older adults' depressive symptoms at t2 (ß=-.11; P=.02), but web-based message production at t1 did not impact t2 depressive symptoms (ß=.12; P=.34). Web-based message consumption had a larger effect (ß=-.11; P=.02) than offline support networks (ß=-.08; P=.03) in reducing older adults' depressive symptoms over time. Higher baseline depressive symptoms did not predict increased web-based message consumption (ß=.12; P=.36) or production (ß=.02; P=.43) over time. CONCLUSIONS: The more messages older adults read on the web-based forum for the first 6 months of the study, the less depressed they felt at the 1-year follow-up, above and beyond the availability of offline support networks at baseline. This pinpoints the substantial potential of web-based communication to combat depressive symptoms in this vulnerable population. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s13063-015-0713-2.

When do Online Audiences Amplify Benefits of Self-Disclosure? The Role of Shared Experience and Anticipated Interactivity.

As individuals increasingly write about their distressing experiences online, it is important to understand how perceived online audiences influence the effects of self-disclosure. In an experiment, participants wrote about recent breakups for online audiences purportedly varying in 1) whether they shared recent breakup experiences and 2) their ability to leave comments. Participants perceiving audiences with shared experience showed more cognitive processing in their writing and reported increased post-traumatic growth at follow-up than participants perceiving general audiences. Those anticipating comments wrote less about emotions than those who did not. Mechanisms accounting for the benefits of shared experience warrant further investigation.

What Do You Say Before You Relapse? How Language Use in a Peer-to-peer Online Discussion Forum Predicts Risky Drinking among Those in Recovery.

Increasingly, individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) seek and provide support for relapse prevention in text-based online environments such as discussion forums. This paper investigates whether language use within a peer-to-peer discussion forum can predict future relapse among individuals treated for AUD. A total of 104 AUD sufferers who had completed residential treatment participated in a mobile phone-based relapse-prevention program, where they communicated via an online forum over the course of a year. We extracted patterns of language use on the forum within the first four months on study using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a dictionary-based text analysis program. Participants reported their incidence of risky drinking via a survey at 4, 8, and 12 months. A logistic regression model was built to predict the likelihood that individuals would engage in risky drinking within a year based on their language use, while controlling for baseline characteristics and rates of utilizing the mobile system. Results show that all baseline characteristics and system use factors explained just 13% of the variance in relapse, whereas a small number of linguistic cues, including swearing and cognitive mechanism words, accounted for an additional 32% of the total 45% of variance in relapse explained by the model. Effective models for predicting relapse are needed. Messages exchanged on AUD forums could provide an unobtrusive and cost-effective window into the future health outcomes of AUD sufferers, and their psychological underpinnings. As online communication expands, models that leverage user-submitted text toward predicting relapse will be increasingly scalable and actionable.

The Couple Who Facebooks Together, Stays Together: Facebook Self-Presentation and Relationship Longevity Among College-Aged Dating Couples.

Drawing on public commitment theory, this research examined the association between Facebook self-presentations of coupledom and relationship longevity among college-aged dating partners. Using a longitudinal design and a path model analytic approach, this study shows that Facebook self-presentational cues (i.e., being listed as "in a relationship," posting dyadic photographs, writing on the partner's wall) were associated with an increase in relationship commitment for dating couples, which, in turn, increased their likelihood of remaining together after 6 months. Contrary to predictions, the number of mutual Friends and the number of posts written by partners on participants' walls were negatively related to relationship commitment. This study is the first to apply public commitment theory to an online romantic relationship context, and one of the few to examine the effects of Facebook on the state and fate of romantic relationships.

Self-affirmation underlies Facebook use.

Social network sites, such as Facebook, have acquired an unprecedented following, yet it is unknown what makes them so attractive to users. Here we propose that these sites' popularity can be understood through the fulfillment of ego needs. We use self-affirmation theory to hypothesize why and when people spend time on their online profiles. Study 1 shows that Facebook profiles are self-affirming in the sense of satisfying users' need for self-worth and self-integrity. Study 2 shows that Facebook users gravitate toward their online profiles after receiving a blow to the ego, in an unconscious effort to repair their perceptions of self-worth. In addition to illuminating some of the psychological factors that underlie Facebook use, the results provide an important extension to self-affirmation theory by clarifying how self-affirmation operates in people's everyday environments.

Separating fact from fiction: an examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles.

This study examines self-presentation in online dating profiles using a novel cross-validation technique for establishing accuracy. Eighty online daters rated the accuracy of their online self-presentation. Information about participants' physical attributes was then collected (height, weight, and age) and compared with their online profile, revealing that deviations tended to be ubiquitous but small in magnitude. Men lied more about their height, and women lied more about their weight, with participants farther from the mean lying more. Participants' self-ratings of accuracy were significantly correlated with observed accuracy, suggesting that inaccuracies were intentional rather than self-deceptive. Overall, participants reported being the least accurate about their photographs and the most accurate about their relationship information. Deception patterns suggest that participants strategically balanced the deceptive opportunities presented by online self-presentation (e.g., the editability of profiles) with the social constraints of establishing romantic relationships (e.g., the anticipation of future interaction).