Abstract

Studies have found a link between subtypes of social withdrawal and internalizing problems throughout most of the lifespan. However, the work conducted in adolescence is much more limited including a lack of work examining factors that might mediate the association between forms of social withdrawal and internalizing problems. Social comparison may be one way in which social withdrawal predicts internalizing problems. There has been research showing that social media usage is associated with internalizing problems. The purpose of this study was to assess (a) the associations between three subtypes of social withdrawal (shyness, avoidance, and unsociability), respectively, and indices of internalizing problems (depression and anxiety, suicidal ideation and loneliness), and (b) whether social comparison, problematic media use and FOMO mediate those relations. Participants included adolescents within a range of 12-17 years of age from the United States. Procedures included analysis of descriptive statistics for variables of interest, and the analytical approach included running structural equation modelling with three mediators. The results showed that there were distinct main effects for each respective subtype of social withdrawal; specifically, shyness predicted loneliness and unsociability predicted less loneliness. There was no mediation, but, there were main effects for subtypes of withdrawal predicting different types of social media use; shyness predicted social media comparison and social media FOMO, avoidance predicted less social media FOMO, and unsociability predicted less social media comparison and less social media FOMO.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Family Life

Rights

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