Online social comparisons were associated with poorer mental health.

Online socialising was also associated with poorer mental health.

Loneliness was a significant mediator depending on covariates included.

Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed complex longitudinal associations.

The findings argue for a nuanced understanding of online world/mental health links.

The interpersonal-connections-behaviour framework proposes that social media is helpful/unhelpful to the individual to the extent that it facilitates/hinders satisfaction of core needs for acceptance and belonging (connecting and disconnecting pathways). However, little research has, to date, explicitly tested this framework.

Both pathways were explored in a cross-sectional sample of UK adults at the start of the pandemic (N = 632) and in longitudinal (cross-lagged) analyses (N = 227–240). Participants completed measures of online and offline socialising with friends and family (connecting pathway), and online and offline social comparisons (disconnecting pathway), anxiety, depression and loneliness.

In cross-sectional analyses higher levels of online comparisons were associated with poorer mental health, an effect that survived after controlling for offline comparisons, and was partially mediated by loneliness. Counter to our predictions, online socialising was also associated with poorer mental health. Longitudinal analyses did not support predicted directions of causality.

Limitations include a lack of testing of individual-level moderators, the use of single item questions to probe some constructs, and an inability to test for effects potentially operating at different time-scales.

The findings reported partially support the interpersonal-connections-behaviour framework in highlighting a disconnecting (but not connecting) pathway between online engagement and mental health. From a clinical perspective they highlight the importance of including people's online lives when considering mental health risk and resilience, particularly (one might argue) during periods of social isolation.

Social media

Social network site

Social connection

Anxiety

Depression

Loneliness

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.