@article{ref1,
title="Being liked or not being liked: A study on social-media exclusion in a preadolescent population",
journal="Journal of Adolescence",
year="2020",
author="Timeo, Susanna and Riva, Paolo and Paladino, Maria Paola",
volume="80",
number="",
pages="173-181",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Social-media can contribute to building up adolescents' relationships, but they might also bring negative exclusionary experiences. Being excluded is a subtle yet hurtful form of relational aggression, which affects people's psychological wellbeing, especially during developmental stages. In this study, we (1) analyzed the effects of social-media exclusion adapting the Ostracism Online paradigm to a cohort of Italian preadolescents (Mage = 11.47, 53% girls) and (2) tested the efficacy of two potential recovery strategies (i.e., social bonds vs. social surrogate). <br><br>METHOD: Inclusionary status was manipulated through the number of &quot;likes&quot; participants received on a fictitious online social network. In the exclusion condition, participants received fewer likes than everyone else. In the inclusion condition, participants received a similar number of likes of other users. Then, all participants were asked to think of a significant positive relationship with a family member (social bonds), a celebrity (social surrogate), their present moment thoughts (control). <br><br>RESULTS: Preadolescents who received fewer likes than others reported higher levels of need threat (i.e., belong, self-esteem, meaningful existence, but not control) and negative emotions. Moreover, the social-bonds strategy generally brought a faster psychological recovery from social-media exclusion than the control condition. The efficacy of social-surrogates strategy was greater for boys than for girls, probably due to different choices in their favorite celebrities. <br><br>CONCLUSION: These findings show how offline life offers compensatory opportunities for adolescents' online life. When the lack of &quot;Likes&quot; signal exclusion on social-media, thinking of an existing social relationship help adolescents to cope with this negative experience.<br><br>Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0140-1971",
doi="10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.02.010",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.02.010"
}