关键词: 社交网站使用, 向上社会比较, 自尊, 妒忌, 大学生

Abstract: Envy is a common and unpleasant emotion experience for most people regardless of culture, which can arise when we compare unfavorably with others who are better than us (Smith & Kim, 2007). Since Internet and social networking sites become an integrated part of modern life and play a important role in the lives of nearly 40% of the world’s population, one of the question under debate is whether social networking sites usage contribute to users’ well-being (Gosling & Mason, 2015; Huang, 2010; Kross et al., 2013; Manago, Taylor, & Greenfield, 2012; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). However, the newest research revealed envy may be one of the crux?of?the?matter. When social networking sites usage triggered feeling of envy, people would be depressing, life dissatisfaction, and low well-being (Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015; Verduyn et al., 2015). Envy threatens people’s well-being online and offline (Krasnova, Wenninger, Widjaja, & Buxmann, 2013; Smith & Kim, 2007). It is necessary to explore factors that influence envy and the mechanism whereby such factor influence envy on social networking sites. Based on social comparison theory, the present study constructed a moderated mediation model to investigate whether upward social comparison mediated the relationship between social networking sites usage and envy, and whether self-esteem moderated this mediation effect. By convenient sampling, totally 630 college students (277 boys and 353 girls) who have used social networking sites for more than three months were recruited to participate in this study. They completed Facebook intensity scale, upward social comparison scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and Facebook envy scale. The results indicated that: (1) Social networking sites usage significantly positively predicted envy, and upward social comparison significantly positively predicted envy. (2) Upward social comparison played a partial mediating role between social networking sites usage and envy. (3) Self-esteem moderated the second path of the mediated effect of upward social comparison, and it means the indirect association between social networking sites usage and envy varied as a function of self-esteem. To be more specifically, the relationship between upward social comparison and envy was much stronger for college students with low self-esteem relative to those with high self-esteem. Therefore, both mediating and moderating effects existed in the association between social networking sites usage and envy. These findings revealed the mechanism for the formation of envy on social networking sites among college students. The present study not only revealed how social networking sites usage influenced envy, but also revealed when this effect was stronger. These findings had significant theoretical and reference values and would contribute to reduce people’s envy on social networking sites. Firstly, it is beneficial to reduce the upward social comparison happened on social networking sites. Secondly, it is important to help college students to improve the level of self-esteem, and adequately reduce envy on social networking sites.

Key words: social networking sites usage, upward social comparison, self-esteem, envy, college students