Mobile social media use and self-identity among Chinese adolescents: The mediating effect of friendship quality and the moderating role of gender

Abstract

Mobile Internet and social media have greatly changed the way that adolescents communicate. The current study investigated the effect of mobile social media use on adolescents’ self-identity, and explored the mediating role of friendship quality and the moderating role of gender. A total of 473 Chinese adolescents participated in the investigation. Results indicated that mobile social media used was positively correlated with adolescents’ self-identity and friendship quality. Moreover, friendship quality mediated the relationship between mobile social media use and adolescents’ self-identity. That is, adolescents’ mobile social media use was associated with a higher quality of friendship, which, in turn, contributed to their formation of self-identity. In addition, gender moderated the relation between mobile social media use and friendship quality, such that this relation was stronger for males than for females.