The longitudinal association between narcissism and problematic social networking sites use: The roles of two social comparison orientations

The present study aimed to explore whether the tendency to compare one’s abilities and opinions to those of others (social comparison orientation) could longitudinally mediate the association between narcissism and problematic SNS use. A total of 1,196 college students were assessed at three time points over 22 months. The results showed that narcissism at time 1 was positively related to problematic SNS use at time 3 and that ability comparison at time 2 longitudinally mediated the association between narcissism at time 1 and problematic SNS use at time 3, whereas the longitudinal mediating effect of opinion comparison at time 2 was not significant. These findings suggest that narcissism more distally and ability comparison more proximally may be risk factors for engaging in problematic SNS use, and it is important to distinguish between types of social comparisons in problematic SNS use behaviors.