Living Alone but Not Feeling Lonely: The Effect of Self-Concealment on Perceived Social Support of Youth Living Alone in China

Linran Zhang, Xiaoyue Fan and Zhanyu Yu ()
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Linran Zhang: School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221000, China
Xiaoyue Fan: School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221000, China
Zhanyu Yu: School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221000, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: The current study explored the mechanism of self-concealment on perceived social support among youth living alone and tried to clarify the two mediating variables, which are “psychological needs met through internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”, by using the Self-Concealment Scale, the Psychological Needs met through Internet Gratification Scale, the Texas Social Behavior Inventory and the Perceived Social Support Scale. Four hundred thirty-three working youth living alone who have lived alone or shared no emotional intersection with others were chosen as participants in this study. The results showed that: (1) the correlation between self-concealment, perceived social support, psychological needs met via internet gratification and social self-esteem was significant; (2) self-concealment positively predicted perceived social support; (3) self-concealment indirectly predicted perceived social support through the chain mediating effect of “psychological needs met via internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”. These results indicated that the self-concealment of youth living alone had a predictive effect on the perceived social support. The mechanisms of this effect included the direct effect of self-concealment and indirect effect through “psychological needs met via internet gratification” and “social self-esteem”.

Keywords: youth living alone; self-concealment; psychological needs met through internet gratification; social self-esteem; perceived social support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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