The relationships among relatedness frustration, affiliation motivation, and WeChat engagement, moderated by relatedness satisfaction

Abstract

The current study was designed based on the two-process model of the relatedness need to investigate the cyber-psychological mechanisms in the relationship between relatedness frustration and social networking sites (SNSs) behaviors. Chinese college students (N = 494; 190 males; Mage = 18.81 ± .92) were recruited to complete online questionnaires to measure relatedness frustration, relatedness satisfaction, affiliation motivation, and WeChat engagement. Path analyses indicated that relatedness frustration was directly related to defensive WeChat engagement and indirectly related to WeChat involvement and active engagement via affiliation motivation. Affiliation motivation played a significant mediating role, with the relationship between affiliation motivation and WeChat involvement being moderated by relatedness satisfaction. Specifically, this relationship existed only when the level of relatedness satisfaction was high. This study helps to understand motivational coping mechanisms among people with different levels of relatedness satisfaction in relation to SNSs after experiencing relatedness frustration. Potential limitations and future directions of this paper to the cyber-psychology literature are discussed.