Prevalence of Online Social Comparison among Undergraduate University Students in Abia State, Nigeria

Uchenna Kalu Agwu, Stephen Asatsa and Joyzy Pius Egunjobi
Additional contact information
Uchenna Kalu Agwu: Department of Counseling Psychology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Stephen Asatsa: Department of Counseling Psychology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Joyzy Pius Egunjobi: Department of Counseling Psychology, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya Psycho-Spiritual Institute of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2025, vol. 9, issue 17, 563-568

Abstract: Online social comparison pertains to the process of individuals assessing themselves by comparing their appearance, opinion or abilities with those of others via social media platforms. This pervasive phenomenon has implications on the self-perception of university students. This study therefore examined the prevalence of online social comparison among undergraduate students in selected universities in Abia State, Nigeria. Grounded on the social comparison theory of Leon Festinger and self-concept theory of Carl Rogers, the study used a descriptive survey design with a target population of 15, 915 undergraduate university students. The adapted Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (INCOM) with a reliability score of (α.78) was used. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25, while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that more than half of the participants (56.6%) had moderate prevalence of online social comparison, while a minority (24.5%) recorded a low prevalence. A smaller proportion of students (18.9%) showed high levels of online social comparison, potentially indicating vulnerability to its effects. The overall average of social comparison dimensions is 2.46 (SD = 0.583). The study therefore recommends that universities should actively promote counseling services to encourage students to seek help and promote healthy online behaviors.

Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ ... issue-17/563-568.pdf (application/pdf)
https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/arti ... -abia-state-nigeria/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:issue-17:p:563-568

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science is currently edited by Dr. Nidhi Malhan

More articles in International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science from International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr. Pawan Verma ().