Self-disclosure in social media and psychological well-being: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Self-disclosure in social media and psychological well-being have been theorized to mutually influence each other. The vibrant research on this issue, however, presents mixed results, calling for a synthesis of the empirical evidence. To this end, we conducted a meta-analysis with 38 empirical studies to systematically examine the nature of the relationship between social media self-disclosure and psychological well-being. We adopted a multidimensional perspective of self-disclosure to scrutinize how the quantity (amount and depth) and quality (intent, valence, and honesty) dimensions of self-disclosure were associated with psychological well-being. The results indicated that valence and honesty of self-disclosure were moderately and positively associated with psychological well-being, but the quantity of self-disclosure was not significantly associated with psychological well-being. Participants’ gender, age, and cultural context of the studies significantly moderated the associations between some dimensions of self-disclosure and psychological well-being. Based on the meta-analysis results, we reassessed theoretical claims on self-disclosure in social media and suggested directions for future research.