How Does Social Comparison Influence Chinese Adolescents’ Flourishing through Short Videos?

Abstract

Flourishing indicates one’s emotional status and functioning level and is essential for ado-lescents’ further development. Adolescents’ social media use has been rising, with various potential effects on their development. Therefore, in this study, we shifted the emphasis from a traditional deficit-based approach to a strength-based approach by exploring how social comparison and social media usage influence Chinese adolescents’ flourishing. Altogether, 786 Chinese adolescents aged 12–19 years completed a self-report questionnaire. The results indicate that (1) both social media social comparison of ability (SCA) and social media social comparison of opinion (SCO) have no significant effect on Chinese adolescents’ flourishing; (2) integration into social routine has a positive indirect effect on the relationship between social media social comparison and flourishing; and (3) social integration and emotional connection negatively affect the relationship between social media social comparison and flourishing. These findings highlight the interaction between social media social comparison and social media usage. Furthermore, the results of this study clarify that the potentially harmful effect of social media usage on adolescents’ flourishing is not determined by the frequency or time spent on using social media, but how much adolescents are connected to or invested in social media.