IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v13y2023i2p21582440231173666.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

More Happiness or Less Comparison? Unpacking Associations Between Life Satisfaction, Negative Comparison and Mobile Social Networking Use Among Sojourning Students

Author

Listed:
  • Hua Pang
  • Yuxin Qiao
  • Yi Xiao
  • Xiang Hu

Abstract

Although the swift proliferation of mobile technology has attracted considerable scholarly attention during the past few decades, relatively few studies have been devoted specifically to the potential influence of life satisfaction on mobile social media engagement among sojourning students. To address this research gap, the current study proposed a conceptual model to empirically explore how overall life satisfaction was associated with social comparison, fear of missing out and mobile social networking engagement. In a web-based survey, a total of 335 Chinese international students aged between 18 and 32 years old completed a battery of online questionnaires. Utilizing structural equation modeling, the results demonstrated that overall life satisfaction was negatively associated with users’ mobile social media use intensity. Additionally, overall life satisfaction positively and significantly predicted both fear of missing out and negative social comparison. Furthermore, fear of missing out and negative social comparison could conceivably mediate the relationships between overall life satisfaction and mobile social media engagement. Therefore, the current article study may shed light on new directions for deeper understanding the underlying psychological mechanisms of mobile technology communication among sojourners and also of the comparatively new phenomenon of fear of missing out and negative comparison in contemporary mobile-saturated society.

Suggested Citation

  • Hua Pang & Yuxin Qiao & Yi Xiao & Xiang Hu, 2023. "More Happiness or Less Comparison? Unpacking Associations Between Life Satisfaction, Negative Comparison and Mobile Social Networking Use Among Sojourning Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:2:p:21582440231173666
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440231173666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231173666
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440231173666?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pang, Hua & Liu, Jun & Lu, Jiahui, 2022. "Tackling fake news in socially mediated public spheres: A comparison of Weibo and WeChat," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang, 2023. "Determining influences of information irrelevance, information overload and communication overload on WeChat discontinuance intention: The moderating role of exhaustion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Miao Li & Ying Hua & Junxuan Zhu, 2021. "From Interactivity to Brand Preference: The Role of Social Comparison and Perceived Value in a Virtual Brand Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Inwon Kang & Ilhwan Ma, 2020. "A Study on Bandwagon Consumption Behavior Based on Fear of Missing Out and Product Characteristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, March.
    5. Dhir, Amandeep & Yossatorn, Yossiri & Kaur, Puneet & Chen, Sufen, 2018. "Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing—A study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 141-152.
    6. Berta Schnettler & Edgardo Miranda-Zapata & Klaus G. Grunert & Germán Lobos & María Lapo & Clementina Hueche, 2021. "Testing the Spillover-Crossover Model between Work-Life Balance and Satisfaction in Different Domains of Life in Dual-Earner Households," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 1475-1501, August.
    7. Shao, Zhen & Pan, Zhengyuan, 2019. "Building Guanxi network in the mobile social platform: A social capital perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 109-120.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang, 2023. "Determining influences of information irrelevance, information overload and communication overload on WeChat discontinuance intention: The moderating role of exhaustion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Yao Wu & Satish Nambisan & Jinghua Xiao & Kang Xie, 2022. "Consumer resource integration and service innovation in social commerce: the role of social media influencers," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 429-459, May.
    3. Naveed Ahmad & Rana Tahir Naveed & Miklas Scholz & Muhammad Irfan & Muhammad Usman & Ilyas Ahmad, 2021. "CSR Communication through Social Media: A Litmus Test for Banking Consumers’ Loyalty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    4. Wen Zhang & Qiang Wang & Jian Li & Zhenzhong Ma & Gokul Bhandari & Rui Peng, 2023. "What makes deceptive online reviews? A linguistic analysis perspective," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Yang, Zaoli & Wu, Qingyang & Venkatachalam, K. & Li, Yuchen & Xu, Bing & Trojovský, Pavel, 2022. "Topic identification and sentiment trends in Weibo and WeChat content related to intellectual property in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    6. Pang, Hua & Qiao, Yuxin & Zhang, Kaige, 2024. "Modeling pathway linking mobile social media intensity to attitude towards electronic word-of-mouth and engagement: The significant role of social trust and perceived homophily," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    7. Pang, Hua & Zhang, Kaige, 2024. "Determining influence of service quality on user identification, belongingness, and satisfaction on mobile social media: Insight from emotional attachment perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Das, Manish & Habib, Mohshin & Saha, Victor & Jebarajakirthy, Charles, 2021. "Bandwagon vs snob luxuries: Targeting consumers based on uniqueness dominance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Khedhaouria, Anis & Montani, Francesco & Jamal, Arshad & Hussain Shah, Mahmood, 2024. "Consequences of technostress for users in remote (home) work contexts during a time of crisis: The buffering role of emotional social support," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    10. Ahmed M. Asfahani & Abdullah Eskandarany & Dina Abdullah Dahlan & Zia Ullah & Hina Khan & Rehana Naheed, 2024. "Empowering Women in Saudi Workforce: HR, Job Satisfaction, and Policies for Work–Life Balance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-22, October.
    11. Enughwure, Akpofure A. & Lelli, Francesco, 2022. "On Developing Human Centric Digital Twins in Industry 4.0 and Beyond," Other publications TiSEM 5c4e4c03-9d17-414a-9900-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    12. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang, 2023. "Can information and communication overload influence smartphone app users' social network exhaustion, privacy invasion and discontinuance intention? A cognition-affect-conation approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Wuxiang Chen, 2023. "Developing a Sustainable Business Model of Ecotourism in Ethnic-Minority Regions Guided by the Green Economy Concept," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-25, January.
    14. Cari Edward C. Beñalet & Manuel E. Pacquiao Jr. & Mary Cris A. Hatagi & Elsie O. Iñigo & Ma. Melanie N. Edig, 2023. "The Influence of Social Media Usage and the Level of Motivation on Students’ Academic Performance: A Linear Regression Analysis," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(9), pages 2033-2048, September.
    15. Giorgio Piccitto & Aart C. Liefbroer & Tom Emery, 2022. "Does the Survey Mode Affect the Association Between Subjective Well-being and its Determinants? An Experimental Comparison Between Face-to-Face and Web Mode," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 3441-3461, October.
    16. Sohaib, Muhammad & Han, Heesup, 2023. "Building value co-creation with social media marketing, brand trust, and brand loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Mar-ju Delon O. Gumabay & Char Mae J. Laconde & Grace Lou Marie C. Meneses & Jason O. Manaois, 2024. "The Moderating Effects of Social Media Networking Usage on Adversity Quotient and Academic Performance among Filipino High School Students," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 11(1), pages 54-64, January.
    18. Christine Petr & Paul Caudan, 2024. "Ethical marketing framework for metaverse simulated experiences of tourism (SET): An exploration of consumers’ aspirations and fears," Post-Print hal-04554364, HAL.
    19. Kumar, Aman & Shankar, Amit & Nayal, Preeti, 2024. "Metaverse is not my cup of tea! An investigation into how personality traits shape metaverse usage intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang & Zhang, Kaige, 2024. "Deciphering technological contributions of visibility and interactivity to website atmospheric and customer stickiness in AI-driven websites: The pivotal function of online flow state," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:2:p:21582440231173666. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.