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The Relationships between Social Comparison Orientation, Fear of Missing Out, and Motives of Instagram Use in a Sample of Young Adults

Courboin, Clara
(2022)

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Courboin_88302000_2022.pdf
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Details

Supervisors
Van den Broucke, Stephan ; Romero Saletti, Silvana Melissa
Faculty
Faculté de psychologie, logopédie, sexologie et des sciences de la famille
Degree label
Master [120] en sciences psychologiques, à finalité spécialisée
Abstract
The use of social networking sites has become part of everyday life. However, besides the evident advantages that are offered by them, research has consistently warned against the potential harmful consequences that can be derived from pathological use. Instagram in particular has been identified as the platform with the most deleterious effects on users’ wellbeing. As a result, a growing number of studies have investigated the consequences of its use. To date, less is known about the motivations underlying Instagram use, despite several authors stating that motivations represent the best predictor of outcomes of use. In addition, to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated the association between hypothesized psychological predictors of general engagement with the platform and specific motives of use. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between social comparison orientation (SCO) and fear of missing out (FoMO), two intrapersonal characteristics that have been shown to predict engagement, and various motives of Instagram use (i.e., social impact seeking, emotional escape seeking, souvenir keeping, social connection seeking, attention seeking, and information seeking). These relationships were examined in a sample of 358 young adults from Belgium using empirically validated measures for each of the study variables. The results support the hypotheses and indicate that both of the investigated variables relate to reasons for Instagram use, with SCO predicting four of the investigated motives and FoMO predicting all of them. However, the mediation analyses put forward that the relationships between SCO and Instagram motives are fully mediated by FoMO. These findings are discussed in line with relevant literature and theoretical and clinical implications. Future studies should aim at replicating the present findings in different populations and investigate which motives are more likely to relate to problematic patterns of use, with the objective of guiding policy efforts and the development of prevention- and treatment programs, which are urgently needed.