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Functional similarities and differences between online and offline social support on psychological well-being

The present study aims to investigate whether online social support could function in the same way as the offline social support to protect our well-being from stress, and to examine how different Internet activities affected Hong Kong adolescents’ online and offline social support, and their subsequent well-being.305 Hong Kong students from grade 10 and 11 participated in the present study. Descriptive statistics found that female adolescents had a higher level of perceived offline social support than male adolescents. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the buffering effect of both perceived offline and online social support on the relationship between stress and anxiety. Results found that perceived online social support could not buffer stress for Hong Kong adolescents. The buffering effect of perceived offline social support was only found in female adolescents. On the other hand, present results suggested that the actual impact of Internet depended on the types of Internet activities and their corresponding impact on offline and online social support. Implications on the importance of offline social support, gender difference on reactions towards social support and education on Internet usage were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/209695
Date January 2014
CreatorsHo, Ting-yan, 何庭欣
PublisherThe University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)
Source SetsHong Kong University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypePG_Thesis
RightsCreative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License, The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.
RelationHKU Theses Online (HKUTO)

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