Human Ecology Research

The Korean Home Economics Association (대한가정학회)
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Effect of Upward Social Comparison in SNS on Depression among Middle School Students: The Mediating Effect of Self-Deprecation and the Moderated Mediating Effect of Cognitive Flexibility

중학생의 SNS 상향비교가 우울에 미치는 영향: 자기비하의 매개 효과와 인지적 유연성의 조절된 매개효과

  • Lee, Se Young (Department of Child & Family Studies, Human life & Innovation desing, Yonsei University) ;
  • Park, Ju Hee (Department of Child & Family Studies, Yonsei University)
  • 이세영 (연세대학교 아동.가족학과, 인간생애와 혁신적 디자인) ;
  • 박주희 (연세대학교 아동.가족학과)
  • Received : 2021.05.09
  • Accepted : 2021.07.12
  • Published : 2021.08.30
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of middle school students'self-deprecation in the relationship between upward social comparison in social network service (SNS) and depression and the moderated mediating effect of cognitive flexibility. The participants were 288 middle school students, in the first to third grades from four middle schools located in Seoul, Gyeong-gi, and Jeonnam. The date were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients and the Process Macro Model 4, 1, and 14. The results of this study are as follows. First, an upward comparison in SNS has a significant positive influence on students'depression, and students' self-deprecation of students mediated the relation between two. Second, the level of control, which is a sub-factor of cognitive flexibility, moderated the mediating effect of self-deprecation. That is, if students are more likely to perceive difficult situations as controllable, upward social comparison in SNS mediated by self-deprecation has smaller effect on depression. Based on these results, we suggest practical interventions to reduce depression among middle school students by decreasing upward social comparison in SNS and self-deprecation. In addition, helping students perceive difficult situations as controllable could be another effective way of reducing depression among those students who have a high level of self-deprecation in upward social comparison in SNS.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This article was supported by BK21 plus project of Yonsei university in 2021.

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