ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Human Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1625771
A Comparative Study of State Self-Esteem Responses to Social Media Feedback Loops in Adolescents and Adults
Provisionally accepted
- Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
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Social media is a prominent arena for self-esteem regulation, particularly during adolescence, a developmental stage marked by heightened neurobiological sensitivity to peer feedback and greater volatility in self-worth. This study employed a multi-method design combining validated self-report measures and controlled experimental exposure to manipulated social media feedback, focusing on social comparison orientation and perceived authenticity as potential mechanisms. Using a cross-sectional quasi-experimental design, 240 urban Chinese participants (adolescents, 13–18 years; adults, 25–40 years) were exposed to simulated profiles that received positive, neutral, or negative feedback, with state self-esteem measured post-exposure only. Results indicated an age × valence interaction, with adolescents showing larger between-condition differences in post-exposure self-esteem than adults for both positive and negative feedback. Mediation analyses, using dummy-coded valence contrasts, revealed that social comparison orientation partially accounted for these effects. Moderation analyses revealed that higher perceived authenticity mitigated the adverse effects of negative feedback across the entire sample. These findings clarify developmental and cognitive-affective processes in digital self-evaluation and may inform educational, technological, and mental health strategies tailored to age-related psychological profiles.
Keywords: Digital Identity Regulation, Self-concept development, feedback processing, emotional reactivity, Authenticity in Self-Presentation, Adolescent vulnerability
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yu-shing Chen, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
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