Social support in the Internet era: Relationships between stressors, problem behavior and adolescents' computer-mediated social support.

The exponential growth of social networking sites, especially the large amount of time spent on Facebook, raised concern about the potential harmful impact of social networking site use on adolescents’ well-being. However, over the years, controversy regarding the potential outcomes of adolescents’ social networking site use has emerged.  This resulted in an ongoing scholarly debate on whether social networking sites, like Facebook, are beneficial or harmful for adolescents’ well-being.  This controversy may be partly due to the fact that it is still unclear how the use of Facebook may influence adolescents’ well-being and who is particularly susceptible to being influenced by the use of Facebook.
This dissertation therefore aimed to contribute to this scholarly debate and hereby aimed to fill a critical gap of knowledge: 1) by examining the processes which explain the impact of Facebook use on adolescents’ well-being, and 2) by investigating the conditions under which the impact of Facebook use on adolescents’ well-being may hold. To address these aims, we applied a differential and integrated approach. On the one hand, this approach differentiates between specific types of Facebook use instead of relying on general measures of Facebook use. On the other hand, this approach integrates theoretical perspectives from different fields instead of relying on a single theory. This approach offers us a more nuanced insight in, and a better theoretical understanding of, the relationship between Facebook use and adolescents’ well-being. To test the dissertation’s research questions, 1,102 Flemish adolescents (12-18 years) filled out paper-and-pencil questionnaires at three different time points. This design allowed us to conduct cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses.
First, this dissertation shows that some Facebook peer-related behaviors can be harmful for adolescents’ well-being (i.e., social support seeking through Facebook, co-rumination on Facebook, negative comparison on Facebook, and peer victimization on Facebook), whereas others can be beneficial (i.e., perceived social support through Facebook). More specifically, the longitudinal data showed that co-rumination on Facebook predicts increases in depressive symptoms. Similarly, negative comparison on Facebook and peer victimization on Facebook predict increases in life dissatisfaction. With regard to social support seeking and perceiving through Facebook, results showed that seeking social support through Facebook predicts increases in depressed mood, whereas perceiving social support through Facebook predicts decreases in depressive symptoms. However, only the relationship between perceived social support and depressive symptoms could be confirmed longitudinally. 
Second, the study further indicates that indicators of a low well-being (i.e., daily stress, loneliness, life dissatisfaction, and depressive symptoms) predict specific types of Facebook use and Facebook peer-related behaviors. More specifically, results demonstrated that more loneliness is related to more passive and active public Facebook use, whereas more school- and family-related stress is related to more social support seeking through Facebook. In addition, the longitudinal data showed that life dissatisfaction predicts increases in negative comparison on Facebook, and that both life dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms predict increases in peer victimization on Facebook. The dissertation’s findings hereby reveal that it is meaningful to differentiate between specific types of Facebook use and Facebook peer-related behaviors in order to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between Facebook use and adolescents’ well-being.
Third, we can conclude that perceived social support (through Facebook) and co-rumination on Facebook are important explanatory mechanisms for the beneficial or harmful impact of specific types of Facebook use on adolescents’ well-being. Results showed that active Facebook use and social support seeking through Facebook are only beneficial for adolescents’ well-being when these types of Facebook use predict increases in adolescents’ perceptions of social support, whereas passive Facebook use is only harmful for adolescents’ well-being when this type of Facebook use predict decreases in adolescents’ perceptions of social support. In addition, active private Facebook use is only harmful for adolescents’ well-being when this type of Facebook use predict increases in co-rumination on Facebook. These results are in line with the social media affordances literature combined with theoretical insights from social comparison theory and the main effects hypothesis.
Fourth, we can conclude that adolescents’ gender and perceived social support are able to create conditions under which the beneficial or harmful impact of specific types of Facebook use on adolescents’ well-being may hold. More specifically, building on the premises of social role theory, results demonstrated that passive Facebook use is especially harmful for girls, whereas active public Facebook use is particularly harmful for boys. In addition, the longitudinal data showed that active private Facebook use especially influences girls, both in a beneficial and harmful way. In line with the buffering hypothesis, findings also showed that high levels of perceived social support protect adolescents against the harmful outcomes of being victimized on Facebook. This dissertation hereby reveals that it is also meaningful to integrate different theoretical perspectives in order to better theoretically understand how specific types of Facebook use may influence adolescents’ well-being and who is particularly susceptible to being influenced by specific types of Facebook use.
Overall, this dissertation contributes to the literature by revealing a new complexity: specific types of Facebook use are differently related to adolescents’ well-being through different mechanisms and in different groups. In addition, by revealing this new complexity, this dissertation not only offers new scholarly insight into the relationship between Facebook use and adolescents’ well-being, it also offers parents, teachers, educators, and practitioners valuable insights related to adolescents’ Facebook use.