Adolescent sadfishing on social media: anxiety, depression, attention seeking, and lack of perceived social support as potential contributors

Sympathy-seeking negative online self-disclosure, or "sadfishing," has proliferated in social media. This study investigates sadfishing by developing and validating a brief self-report questionnaire of the construct and exploring potential psychological correlates. A total of 345 Iranian a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC Psychology 2023-11, Vol.11 (1), p.1-378, Article 378
Main Authors: Shabahang, Reza, Shim, Hyejin, Aruguete, Mara S, Zsila, Ãgnes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Analysis
Anxiety
Child psychopathology
Depression
Depression, Mental
Emotions
Identity theft
Mental depression
Psychological aspects
Self disclosure
Social aspects
Social media
Social networks
Social support
Surveys
Teenagers
Youth
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Summary:Sympathy-seeking negative online self-disclosure, or "sadfishing," has proliferated in social media. This study investigates sadfishing by developing and validating a brief self-report questionnaire of the construct and exploring potential psychological correlates. A total of 345 Iranian adolescent social media users (M.sub.age = 16.29, SD.sub.age = 1.52) participated in the study. Participants completed the newly constructed Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire, in addition to measures of anxiety, depression, attention seeking, perceived social support, and social media use integration. Factor analyses revealed a unidimensional structure of the 5-item Social Media Sadfishing Questionnaire. The questionnaire yielded sound construct validity and internal consistency. Anxiety, depression, and attention seeking were positively associated with sadfishing, while perceived social support from family and friends was negatively associated with sadfishing. Negative online reactions to sadfishing were rare. Boys reported higher sadfishing tendencies than girls at age 12; however, sadfishing in boys declined at a higher rate than in girls with age. The findings suggest that negative affect and attention seeking, combined with feelings of low social support, can be associated with adolescent sadfishing on social media. The quantitative results shed new light on the contribution of psychosocial factors to sadfishing.
ISSN:2050-7283
2050-7283
DOI:10.1186/s40359-023-01420-y