While the psychological benefits of social support are well-established, it is also clear that for many socially anxious individuals, engaging with face-to-face social networks is problematic. This research examined whether social support derived from an online social network (Facebook) had incremental value in predicting subjective well-being over and above offline social support in socially anxious and non-socially anxious individuals. Individuals with high (N = 105) and low (N = 194) social anxiety completed measures of perceived social support, perceived social support derived from Facebook, and subjective well-being. For the high social anxiety group, Facebook social support explained a significant amount of additional variance in subjective well-being, with offline social support failing to contribute significantly to the model. For the low social anxiety group, Facebook social support did not explain any variance in well-being over and above offline social support. Possible implications of the utility of Facebook for socially anxious individuals are discussed.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	social anxiety, social support, social networking sites, Facebook, Facebook social support
Research Division:	Psychology
Research Group:	Social and personality psychology
Research Field:	Social psychology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in psychology
UTAS Author:	Grieve, R (Dr Rachel Grieve)
ID Code:	88007
Year Published:	2014
Web of Science® Times Cited:	86
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2014-01-06
Last Modified:	2017-11-03
Downloads:	9 View Download Statistics