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Social Media Friendship Jealousy
Tracy Vaillancourt1,2, Heather Brittain1, Mollie Eriksson3
1Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Summary
A new scale measures social media friendship jealousy. This jealousy is linked to poorer friendships, higher social media use, and increased internalizing symptoms, particularly in women.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Media Studies
- Mental Health Research
Background:
- Social media use is prevalent, influencing interpersonal relationships.
- Friendship jealousy can extend to online interactions, potentially impacting mental well-being.
- Existing measures may not fully capture jealousy specific to social media contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a psychometrically sound measure for social media friendship jealousy.
- To examine demographic differences in social media friendship jealousy.
- To investigate the associations between social media friendship jealousy, friendship quality, social media use, trait jealousy, and internalizing symptoms.
Main Methods:
- Development of a seven-item, one-factor scale for social media friendship jealousy.
- Psychometric validation across three North American adult samples (N = 1300).
- Longitudinal analysis of stability and bidirectional relations with internalizing symptoms over three years.
Main Results:
- The developed measure demonstrated good validity, reliability, and stability.
- Women and younger women reported higher levels of social media friendship jealousy.
- Social media friendship jealousy correlated with lower friendship quality, increased social media use, trait jealousy, and predicted increases in internalizing symptoms.
Conclusions:
- The new scale effectively measures social media friendship jealousy.
- Social media friendship jealousy is a significant factor associated with negative friendship and mental health outcomes.
- Individuals with internalizing symptoms may be particularly vulnerable to social media-related friendship jealousy.
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