The Frequency of Posting on Social Media and Subjective Well-Being among Chinese Youth: The Mediating Role of the Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs

Zhou Yingnan; Wang Junxiu

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230623

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (6) : 1454-1461. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230623

Social，Personality & Organizational Psychology

The Frequency of Posting on Social Media and Subjective Well-Being among Chinese Youth: The Mediating Role of the Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs

Zhou Yingnan¹, Wang Junxiu^2,3

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Abstract

In recent years, social media has become increasingly popular in our daily life. WeChat moment, QQ space, and microblog become the most popular social media platforms, accounting for 83.4%, 58.8% and 42.3% of all mobile phone users, respectively. These social media users are mainly young people. Young people aged 20~39 take up 70.8%, 75.2% and 70.9% of the users of WeChat moment, QQ space, and microblog respectively. The use of social media has increasingly become an important part of the life of Chinese youth. Posting on social media about their lives is becoming more and more popular among them. It is of great significance to explore the influence of this phenomenon on young people.

Previous studies mainly focused on the negative effects of social media use. In this study, we explored the positive impact of posting on social media on subjective well-being among Chinese youth. Based on the use and satisfaction theory, we hypothesized that posting on social media can meet the psychological needs of young people and further improve their subjective well-being. That is, psychological needs satisfaction plays a mediating role between posting on social media and subjective well-being. In order to test the above hypothesis, we conducted a nationwide online survey to collect data. The Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Chinese version of SDT Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale, the Emotion Scale and the Social media use questionnaire were used. A total of 7667 Chinese young people (5213 males and 2454 females) aged 18~44 completed the survey.

Descriptive statistical analysis and multi-group analysis using structural equation model (SEM) were conducted. The results showed that: (1) The majority of young people in China posted on social media, with an average of 6.48 posts per week. (2) The frequency of posing on social media was positively associated with subjective well-being and satisfaction of psychological needs among Chinese youth. (3) The frequency of posting on social media could meet the psychological needs of young people and therefore, improved their subjective well-being. (4) Compared with females, the frequency of posting on social media had more impact on their subjective well-being among males, and psychological needs satisfaction played a stronger mediating role as well.

These results indicated that active use of social media such as posting can meet people’s psychological needs and therefore has positive effects on people’s mental health, and the positive impact is much stronger on male than on female. These findings can provide some insights on the positive usage of social media and how to improve male’s wellbeing through active use of social media.

Key words

social media / frequency of posting / subjective well-being / psychological needs satisfaction / multi-group analysis

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Zhou Yingnan, Wang Junxiu. The Frequency of Posting on Social Media and Subjective Well-Being among Chinese Youth: The Mediating Role of the Satisfaction of Basic Psychological Needs[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(6): 1454-1461 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20230623

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