Social Comparison Orientation in Social Networking Sites and General Health & Well-being among University Students: Role of Narcissism and Self-esteem

Abstract

Aim of the Study: The aim of the study was to examine the connection between social comparison orientation in social networking sites and general health & well-being among university students. The study further evaluates how narcissism and self-esteem play a part in this relationship

Methodology: The study based on correlational research design. A sample of 500 university students with (M =1.50 and SD=.50). Age range of participants was 18 to 30 years, taken from different universities students from Sargodha and Faisalabad, having an equal proportion of males and females. Only those university students who were currently using at least four social networking sites from last 6 months like Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, were selected. Unmarried university students and those with any physical and psychological illness and married were excluded from the study. Different measurement scales were used for the data collection like social comparison orientation Scale: (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999), General health & wellbeing scale short form of SF- 36 (Ware & Sherbourne, 1992), Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale (Hendin & Cheek, 2013), self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965).

Findings: Result of study explained social comparison orientation and general health & well-being were positively correlated and subscales of social comparison orientation and general health & well-being. There is also a positive correlation between social comparison orientation and Narcissism and negative correlation with self-esteem among university students. Stepwise Regression analysis showed that General health & well-being was significantly predicted by social comparison orientation whereas narcissism was not identified as an important indicator in this outcome. Mean differences among study variables result showed that there were major differences in social comparison orientation, self-esteem while a non-significant difference on general health & well-being with relevance to gender and age among university students.

Conclusion: Social comparison orientation effects negatively on general health and well-being in university students. It also relates negative self-esteem among them.