社交媒体减量与青少年友谊：心理韧性与使用动机的作用

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.

Sec. Evolutionary Psychology

• 1. Private University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology (UMIT), Hall in Tirol, Austria

• 2. Bergische Universitat Wuppertal Institut fur Psychologie, Wuppertal, Germany

Abstract

Evolved affiliation motives drive people to seek belonging and monitor social inclusion. Social media (SM) can support these motives by facilitating contact but may also undermine offline friendships. We tested whether friendship quality/quantity changed after a two-week SM reduction and whether SM-use motives and psychological resilience moderated changes. Children (10+), adolescents, and young adults were recruited in schools and universities. At T1, an experimental-group (n=480) and a control-group (n=293) completed online or paper-and-pencil surveys; the experimental-group was asked to abstain from SM for two weeks, while controls continued using. At T2, 287 experimental-and 196 control-participants completed the survey. Participants who used SM reported motives in an open-ended item at T2. We examined behavior‑based reductions (i.e., actual voluntary reduction), allowing us to speak to real‑world change but does not support causal inference from assignment. Variance analyses showed significant time and reduction-group interactions for both outcomes: moderate reductions (reduced use ≥ 30min/day) were associated with small improvements in friendship quantity and quality, whereas stricter limits (use < 30min/day) yielded no benefit. At baseline, resilience was positively linked to friendship quantity and quality but did not predict or moderate T1-T2 change. Among continued users, T2 friendship quality (controlling T1) was positively associated with communication motives and negatively with selective restriction, while quantity showed no motive links. Overall, resilience appears to be a general resource for friendship quality and may buffer motive–relationship links. Understanding youths' SM motives may promote healthier use and guide ethical platforms and education design, especially for vulnerable youth.

Keywords

Communication, Friendship quality, friendship quantity, psychological resilience, social media reduction, social media usage motives, Youth

Received

08 August 2026

Accepted

30 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Schowalter, Reiter, Klümper and Agthe. 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:

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