Attitude Toward Online Relationship Formation and Psychological Need Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Loneliness

Abstract

Our study explores the moderating role of loneliness in the relationship between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. Participants included 1572 adolescents who completed self-report measures of loneliness, attitude toward online relationship formation, and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. As hypothesized, attitude toward online relationship formation was positively related to psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. Results of moderation also demonstrated that lonely adolescents would report more positive attitude toward online relationship formation and higher psychological need satisfaction in online friendships compared to adolescents with nonlonely. Overall, these results extend self-determination theory’s contentions regarding the critical role of socialization initiatives to increase the fulfilment of psychological needs for adolescents, regardless of whether the relationship was formed through the Internet or in-person.

Keywords

Adolescents attitude toward online relationship formation loneliness moderation psychological need satisfaction

Introduction

As far back as the 1943s, the noted psychologist Maslow (1987) considered human needs to be hierarchically ordered in five-tier levels. Rather than focusing on human needs being tied to a particular order as Maslow did, self-determination theory (SDT) is concerned primarily with the satisfaction of three psychological needs—needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000, 2002, 2008). Drawing on SDT, the need to satisfy psychological needs is considered crucial regardless of demographics. Viewing from the developmental perspectives, the teen years are a time of concentrated social and emotional development where they need to be loved and to belong (Ang, 2016). Furthermore, they need to gain more clarity and confidence in their own ideas, values, and feelings, as well as need to develop new skills and understanding related to all areas of life to build a sense of self-worth that comes from accomplishments. These facts point to an undeniable truth: every adolescent needs increasing opportunities to experience psychological needs satisfaction. In the academic literature, too, satisfaction of psychological needs is one of the most frequently cited and studied indicators of well-being in adolescents (Leversen, Danielsen, Birkeland, & Samdal, 2012; Orkibi & Ronen, 2017; Tian, Tian, & Huebner, 2016).

Specifically, autonomy means a sense of to be an initiator of one’s own life. It is fulfilled by the experience that one can behave in a way that reflects one’s own volition, will, or choice instead of an outsider’s pressure. Competence means a sense of development key skills and ability in order to successfully interact with the environment. It is fulfilled by the experience that one is able and effective in dealing with the environment. Relatedness means a desire to feel closeness and connections with others. It is fulfilled by the experience that one can emotionally and securely attach with others and be understood by other individuals. According to Deci and Ryan (2000), the satisfaction of three psychological needs constitutes the nutriments that are required for the nurturance and growth of the human psyche. Emergent SDT-based research has also documented well-being and a variety of healthful outcomes are best served with the experiences of need satisfaction, whereas the experience of need frustration was uniquely related to passivity, ill-being, and pathologies (Ang, Abu Talib, Tan, Tan, & Yaacob, 2015; Şimşek & Koydemir, 2013).

Despite the significance of these three psychological needs, scholars noted that these psychological needs are by no means considered to be automatic (Deci & Ryan, 2000, 2008). Based on the organismic-dialectical perspective of SDT, it is theorized that humans are born with an intrinsic need to integrate into the social matrix to acquire satisfaction of three psychological needs, in turn, facilitating fuller internalizations. This underscores social interactions help to experience greater psychological needs satisfaction (La Guardia, Ryan, Couchman, & Deci, 2000). Individuals will experience a heightened sense of psychological need satisfaction if his or her social context is supportive of meaningful relationships. Although research has proved the importance of physical social context (both the general and the domain-specific levels) on psychological need satisfaction, virtually no studies so far have explored need satisfaction in the context of online relationships. The lack of empirical research does not allow answering the question of whether online relationships can fulfil psychological needs. Presently, our society is increasingly interconnected as a result of the increasing speed and broadening access to digital communication (Baym, 2015). A plethora of studies have confirmed that adolescents use the Internet as a medium for social communication, enabling them to potentially make more friends in a computer-mediated environment (Cernikova, Dedkova, & Smahel, 2018; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2014). Thus, this study was conducted to understand psychological need satisfaction in the online friendship context and the variables associated with psychological need satisfaction among adolescents.

Psychological need satisfaction in online friendships

Speaking of the role of the Internet, it is widely accepted that the Internet is global in nature and continues to permeate many aspects of people’s lives. To be sure, the use of the Internet for social purposes continues to grow (Baym, 2015; Cernikova et al., 2018). Since the explosion of the Internet as a social medium, more and more adolescents become part of the net population and spend time making friends online. This growth seems to correlate with an enticing new body of research that suggests adolescents themselves find computer-mediated communication (CMC) gratifying and pleasurable (Ang et al., 2015). Early studies argued that online relationships are not of lower quality than face-to-face relationships for several reasons: feeling anonymity, greater control over the time and pace of interactions, as well as finding similar others (McKenna, Green, & Gleason, 2002). As a unique communication medium, adolescents can be appeared invisible at a click of button. They are also allowed to stay anonymous with their real-world identity hidden. Even if adolescents divulge identifying self-information in an online platform, they still feel relatively safe and anonymous (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). The free regulation of online interaction may gear toward a sense of power over one’s environment, in tandem with increasing self-confidence. On a similar note, Cernikova et al. (2018) and West and Turner (2009) underlined that media use may foster a number of need fulfilments, including a sense of affiliation, need for information, goal achievement, and self-identity. When examining adolescents and the Internet in nine European countries, Cernikova et al. (2018) found that the majority of the adolescents perceived themselves as active participants in the online world and described the Internet to be an easy and convenient choice for creating a new genre of interpersonal relationships. K. M. Sheldon, Abad, and Hinsch (2011) further found that youth who more used Facebook reported higher relatedness and lower psychological distress than non-Facebook counterparts in both cross-sectional and longitudinal design. All the findings discussed above are conceptually similar to the SDT’s conception for the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

To illustrate, autonomy involves feelings that one is the initiator of one’s own action, rather than feeling that one is being coerced by others. In the context of CMC, autonomy can be fulfilled within online friendships with the anonymity nature of CMC that provides considerable flexibility over communication. Walther (2011) defined CMC as a user-generated context, whereby autonomy for communication would typically be high. Adolescents can receive verification for their own feelings, thoughts, and actions without feeling anxious about being humiliated, criticized, or judged. Competence involves feeling that one’s capacity to effectively act on the world, rather than feeling that one is behaving incompetently. In the contexts of CMC, the development of communication, socialization, and learning can be propelled to an international scale (McKenna et al., 2002). It is probable to heighten the experience of competence through opportunities to get new skills or abilities and become stakeholders in communities that they themselves have created. Furthermore, the text-mediated basis allows adolescents to look themselves as an object or “glass self” through the sequence of writing and reviewing message (Walther, 2011). As an extension of this pattern, self-awareness and a sense of efficacy can be reinforced. Relatedness represents the need to securely attach to and understand by others that people experience a sense of belongingness, rather than feeling like an object whose experiences are ignored (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In the contexts of CMC, perceived relatedness is among the most important satisfaction as they represent arenas in which interpersonal social contact can be boosted. Studies have consistently shown that youth can find a multiplicity of relatedness need including emotional support—opportunities to share interests, discuss problems, and receive and give advice without socially defined boundaries (Sheldon et al., 2011). In line with these findings, it is believed that CMC establishes a highly facilitated environment for psychological need satisfaction.

Attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships

Attitude toward online relationship formation, or an individual’s assessment of the desirability of forming relationships with someone via online, plays an important role in maintaining and promoting an experience of satisfaction from online (Ang et al., 2015; Attrill & Jalil, 2011). The conceptualization of attitude toward online relationship formation comprises three facets: (1) cognitive consisting of individual’s thoughts and beliefs, (2) affection consisting of individual’s emotional reaction and feelings, and (3) behavior consisting of individual’s intentions toward the attitude object (Attrill & Jalil, 2011). While adolescents’ attitudes and experiences with online relationships may not all be uniform, prior studies suggest that online relationships are popular and widespread activities among adolescents (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; McKenna et al., 2002). More recent statistics also demonstrated that attitudes toward online relationships grow more positive (Cernikova et al., 2018; Leung, 2011).

Even though making friends online is more common than ever, there exists little research specifically examining the linkage between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships (Ang et al., 2015). Although research is limited, the growth of interest in the Web as a communication and social medium is fascinating for practitioners and researchers alike. A review of the literature revealed that attitudes toward the Web positively influence user satisfaction (Carlson & O’Cass, 2010; Chen & Wells, 1999; Luo, 2002). In addition, Rafael, Carla, and Silvia (2013) supported the idea that favourable attitude toward social network sites enhanced overall satisfaction within it and social network loyalty. Lee, Tsao, and Chang (2015) similarly pointed out that attitude remains important motivator in stimulating user satisfaction on mobile application services. These findings reflect that the important functions of attitudes for the users’ levels of intrinsic motivation and satisfaction experiences in the information age. Taking into consideration current attitude research, attitudes toward online relationship formation was included as one of the studied variables in clarifying psychological need satisfaction in online relationships among adolescents.

Loneliness as a moderator

Furthermore, loneliness may be an important dimension along which such experiences vary. Loneliness was described by Cacioppo and Patrick (2008) as a subjective distress concerning relational deficits. It is an unwanted discrepancy between actual and desired levels of social contact. A more anthropological definition of loneliness is people not feeling connected (Blöte & Westenberg, 2007). While no age-group is immune to feelings of loneliness, adolescents are anecdotally regarded as a group “at risk” of loneliness, and an extensive meta-analysis also provided strong confirmation (Mahon, Yarcheski, Yarcheski, Cannella, & Hanks, 2006). Instead of opening inner feelings, adolescents prone to loneliness are often introverted, shy, and more anxious and depressed (Bonetti, Campbell, & Gilmore, 2010). This may be inhibited from expressing their true emotion toward others because of persistent thinking others unable to understand them well. Paradoxically, adolescents still wanted to be heard and seen by others while in the origin of deprivation (Mahon et al., 2006; Sheldon & Gunz, 2009).

When considering loneliness, it has been found that lonely adolescents were more likely than nonlonely adolescents to have more positive attitudes toward online relationship formation (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2003), communicate online more frequently (Bardi & Brady, 2010; Bonetti et al., 2010; Valkenburg & Peter, 2009), feel more understood (McKenna et al., 2002; P. Sheldon, 2008; Sheldon et al., 2011), and express themselves more easily (Cernikova et al., 2018; McKenna et al., 2002) on the Internet. This is because virtual relationships have some essential elements of flesh-and-blood relationships (e.g., communication, connectedness, and sharing). Yet, these relationships can help lonely adolescents get beyond the ill ease that occurs when they meet in person. The attributes of the Internet (e.g., anonymity, affordability, and easy access) render this new medium as unique for the exploration of personal relationships because there is no direct way for others to assess their facial expression, gestures, appearance, or voice intonations that they present through cyberspace. These are essential motivators among lonely people to meet their needs for social acceptance. Unsurprisingly, some studies have reported adolescents with higher loneliness tend to make friends online than nonlonely counterparts (Ang et al., 2015; Baym, 2015). Some even argued for those who are socially inadequate and lonely, cyberspace interactions are normative ways of practicing “people skills” and gaining comfort with new friends (Ang, Chan, & Lee, 2018; Bonetti et al., 2010; Shklovski, Kiesler, & Kraut, 2006; Valkenburg & Peter, 2008, 2009). This may explain why online relationships are perceived and rated as equal, or even exceed, the quality of face-to-face relationships among lonely adolescents.

The current research

In this study, we used a nationally diverse sample to (a) examine a linear association between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships and (b) to determine if the linear association would be moderated by loneliness. Based on the existing literature, we hypothesized that positive attitude toward online relationship formation would be related to satisfaction of the three psychological needs in online friendships among adolescents. We further hypothesized that loneliness would moderate the association between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction such that higher loneliness would be associated with positive attitude toward online relationship formation.

Methods

Participants

Participants included adolescents (673 boys, 899 girls, Mage = 15.05 years, age range: 13–18) studied at secondary schools in several states in Malaysia. Of the 1572 participants, 614 identified as Malay, 600 as Chinese, 106 as Indian, and 252 as Others. In addition, participants were asked to indicate their most used communication applications (1 = Instant Messenger, 2 = Social Network Sites, 3 = Twitter, 4 = E-mail, 5 = Forum, and 6 = Online Gaming Sites). By order of preference, social networking sites emerged as the most frequently used communication channel in the sample with the affirmation of 75.9% (n = 1,193). The remaining respondents were either most frequently used instant messaging (n = 71, 4.5%), Twitter (n = 109, 6.9%), e-mail (n = 52, 3.3%), or online game sites (n = 122, 7.8%). Forum emerged as the least frequently used communicating channel (n = 25, 1.6%), indicating forums were the least popular.

Measures

The University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA Loneliness Version 3), which was developed by Russell (1996), was administered to measure the subjective feelings of loneliness. This scale is the most commonly used unidimensional measure for adolescent loneliness globally (Ang et al., 2018; Russell, 1996). In this study, only five highest factor loading items were used, as suggested by Bonetti et al. (2010) due to the unidimensional nature of loneliness. Participants were asked to respond on a four-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). Higher scores reflect higher loneliness. Some item examples are “How often do you feel isolated from others” and “How often do you feel that you are no longer to anyone?” In Russell’s (1996) study, internal consistency coefficients of the UCLA have been reported to range from .89 to .94 across different samples and a 12-month test–retest reliability coefficient of .73. In this study, the estimated internal consistency of the scale was α = .79.

The Attitude toward Online Relationship Formation Scale (AORFS; Attrill & Jalil, 2011) was administered to measure the global favorability toward interactions via online means. The scale contains 15 items and measures both the positive and negative attitudes, only the six positively worded items were used in this study. Each item was rated on a four-point Likert-type response with strongly disagree (1) and strongly agree (4). Higher scores reflect favorable attitude toward online relationship formation. Some item examples are “I feel that meting people and forming relationships is important, regardless of whether the person was met through the Internet or in-person” and “I think in years to come, people making friends on the Internet and then meeting offline will become common practice.” It has a published Cronbach’s alpha of .90 in a sample of young adults (Attrill & Jalil, 2011). In this study, the estimated internal consistency of the scale was α = .76.

The Need Satisfaction in Relationship Scale (NSRS; La Guardia et al., 2000) was used to assess the degree to which a respondent satisfies needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness when they are with their online friends. This scale is a nine-item scale designed to assess three facets of psychological need satisfaction in online relationships. Participants were asked to indicate how accurately each of the items applied to them on a seven-point Likert-type basis ranging from 1 = not true at all to 7 = very true. Higher scores reflect greater need satisfaction. Some item examples are “When I am with online friends, I feel free to be who I am,” “When I am with online friends, I feel do not often feel inadequate or incompetent,” and “When I am with online friends, I feel loved and cared about.” Coefficients of internal consistency for three subscales ranged from .85 to .94 (La Guardia et al., 2000). In this study, the estimated internal consistency reliability of the total scale was .87, while for the subscales were .66 for autonomy, .74 for competence, and .75 for relatedness.

Procedures

The research procedure, the rights and safety of the participants, and the method of data collection were approved by the ethical committee of Universiti Putra Malaysia. As the participants’ ages less than 18 years, informed consent was obtained from the parents. Adolescents whose parents sent consent were informed about the study and it was made clear that participation was strictly voluntary. Those who agreed to participate were further requested to sign an assent form. Participants were asked to complete questionnaire anonymously. The questionnaire was prepared in a Malay version. Because the Malay versions of the scales were not available, translation was conducted for the items of these scales. This procedure performed by native speakers of the target language and further validated through a pilot study on a convenience sample of school adolescents (N = 47; 18 boys, 29 girls; Mage = 15.36, SD = 1.17) to safeguard the translated scales was appropriately adopted to meet the objectives of the study. The results of the pilot study yielded satisfactory internal consistency (i.e., .87 for UCLA; .82 for AORFS; .84 for NSRS). This indicates all measures possessed basic psychometric properties and sufficient to continue to use. The pilot study also showed that participants had no difficulty in understanding the questionnaire. Throughout the administration, all questionnaire items were read aloud to the participants by trained enumerators with the presence of school teachers. Several reminders to ask for help were made throughout the administration if they had any difficulties with words or phrases.

Analysis

Statistical analyses were conducted using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS Version 18) (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Descriptive statistics and correlations among all the variables were examined. We first tested the measurement model with confirmatory factor analysis to assess the extent to which of the three latent variables was represented by its indicators. To prevent the inflation of measurement errors owing to multiple items, three item parcels were created for Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness subscales using average score of the items. If the measurement model was accepted, a structural model was then estimated to examine the relationships between study variables. As a general rule, the normed chi-square (CMIN/df) ≤ 5, the comparative fit index (CFI) and the Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) ≥ .90, and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) ≤ .08 are considered favorable (Bryne, 2009; Kline, 2005). To examine the moderating role of loneliness, both the chi-square (χ²) difference test and the critical ratio of difference (CRD) were computed (Arbuckle & Wothke, 1999). While p values less than .05 indicate the proposed model varied as a function of moderator, CRD values greater than ±1.96 indicate statistical significant at .05 level.

Results

Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations for two main variables are provided in Table 1. All variables in this study were considered normal as all univariate skewness and kurtosis values fell within the recommended range (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013).

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations between variables.

	Correlation
Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. Attitude	–
2. PNS	.39***	–
3. Autonomy	.38***	.88***	–
4. Competence	.31***	.88***	.66***	–
5. Relatedness	.35***	.89***	.68***	.68***	–
6. Loneliness	.09***	−.01	.07**	−.03	−.06*	–
Mean	16.45	35.47	12.38	11.29	11.80	11.99
Standard Deviation	2.97	10.91	4.18	3.99	4.16	3.20
Skewness	−.23	.01	−.02	.21	−.01	.09
Kurtosis	.46	−.02	−.34	−.15	−.34	−.30

PNS: psychological need satisfaction; Attitude: attitude toward online relationship formation.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Measurement model

Table 2 presents confirmatory factor analysis results. The initial estimation provided a satisfactory result: (χ²(74) = 323.77, p < .05, CMIN/df = 4.38, CFI =.957, GFI = .969, TLI = .947, RMSEA = .046; 90% confidence interval = [.041–.052]). The values of the chosen indices met the set criteria, suggesting that the data fit of the hypothetical model is good. All the factor loadings for the indicators on the latent variables were significant and above .30, which is commonly used to define a salient factor loading (Kline, 2005).

Table 2.

Measurement model.

Latent Variable	Manifest variable	Standardized loading	Unstandardized loading	Standard error	Critical ratio
Attitude toward Online Relationship Formation	Item 1	.46	1.00
	Item 2	.55	1.22*	.09	13.11
	Item 3	.42	.80*	.07	11.31
	Item 4	.64	1.28*	.09	13.95
	Item 5	.60	1.16*	.09	13.69
	Item 6	.34	.70*	.07	9.78
Psychological need satisfaction	Autonomy	.82	1.00
	Competence	.81	.95*	.03	33.06
	Relatedness	.84	1.02*	.03	33.88
Loneliness	Item 1	.55	1.00
	Item 2	.63	1.14*	.07	17.60
	Item 3	.70	1.35*	.07	18.67
	Item 4	.70	1.43*	.08	18.73
	Item 5	.72	1.36*	.07	18.95

Note: Autonomy, competence, and relatedness are the subscales of the need satisfaction scale.

*p < .001.

Structural model

This model included attitude toward online relationship formation as an exogenous variable and psychological need satisfaction was an endogenous variable. The model showed a good fit. As it can be seen from the Figure 1, attitude toward online relationship formation had a significant relationship with psychological need satisfaction. It can be seen from the data in Figure 1 that attitude toward online relationship formation was positively associated with psychological need satisfaction. The findings of this study showed that attitude toward online relationship formation was a valuable predictor of psychological need satisfaction. This variable explained 24% of the variance in psychological need satisfaction.

Figure 1.

Model linking attitude toward online relationship formation to psychological need satisfaction for total sample. Note that path coefficients are presented in standardized units. *p < .001.

Moderation test of loneliness

A multigroup analysis was performed to examine whether the attitude toward online relationship formation-psychological need satisfaction linkage was moderated by loneliness. To examine the moderating effect of loneliness, the pooled sample data were then divided on the basis of median splits in loneliness to provide a more reliable estimation (Iacobucci, Posavac, Kardes, Schneider, & Popovich, 2015). Therefore, a total of 903 respondents (57.4%) were assigned to the nonlonely groups, and 669 (42.6%) were assigned to the lonely groups.

The results yielded between the variant group model (χ²(52) = 214.091, p < .05, CMIN/df = 4.117, CFI = .956, GFI = .969, TLI = .939, RMSEA =.045; 90% confidence interval = [.038–.051]) and the invariant model (χ²(71) = 256.930, p < .05, CMIN/df = 3.619, CFI = .950, GFI = .964, TLI =.949, RMSEA = .041; 90% confidence interval = [.036–.046]) indicate that the impact of likely differences across loneliness was significant, because the variant model shows better goodness of-fit indices than the invariant model, Δχ²(19) = 42.839, p < .001. The CRD analysis indicated that there was a significant group difference in the path from attitude toward online relationship formation to psychological need satisfaction, CRD = 3.30, p < .01. The magnitude of the association between the attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction was greater in a lonely group (b = 3.69, p < .001) than nonlonely group (b = 1.57, p < .001). This indicates that those adolescents who experienced higher loneliness, attitude toward online relationship formation produced stronger effects on psychological need satisfaction as compared to those with low loneliness (Table 3).

Table 3.

Standardized regression weight between nonlonely and lonely groups.

Path	Standardized regression weight
Path	Nonlonely	Lonely
PNS ← Attitude	.41	.61
Item 1 ← Attitude	.46	.47
Item 2 ← Attitude	.52	.58
Item 3 ← Attitude	.42	.40
Item 4 ← Attitude	.67	.58
Item 5 ← Attitude	.62	.60
Item 6 ← Attitude	.32	.36
Autonomy ← PNS	.85	.78
Competence ← PNS	.83	.76
Relatedness ← PNS	.86	.82

PNS: psychological need satisfaction; Attitude: attitude toward online relationship formation.

Discussion

Why to study psychological need satisfaction? Because satisfaction of these psychological needs is universally essential for thriving, engagement, motivation, and well-being, researchers should evaluate the factors that support or hamper psychological need satisfaction. Deci and Ryan presented theoretical arguments that psychological need satisfaction needs to be considered within social contexts because humans have evolved to be inherently competent, autonomous, and related to others (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2002; La Guardia & Patrick, 2008). From this base, we explored the relationships between attitudes toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships.

As expected, results have confirmed the association between attitude and satisfaction, showing the importance of having positive attitude toward online relationship formation in order to achieve higher levels of psychological need satisfaction in online friendships. This overall result is consistent with a number of previous studies in which trait-like attitude toward using social media influence the valence of satisfaction outcomes from it (Ledbetter et al., 2011; Rafael et al., 2013). According to an already traditional definition, attitude is relatively stable affective to an object or situation influencing one to engage in some favored way (Attrill & Jalil, 2011). It is usually believed that adolescents who have positive attitude toward media use tend to expect the best to happen, leading them to exert high levels of commitment of using it (Lee et al., 2015; Luo, 2002). In effect, they would have an inner dialogue of self-motivation than sourpuss counterparts. This will help to improve motivated involvement in media activities, generating psychological need satisfaction from online relationships.

Concerning ancillary investigations, loneliness differences on the link between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction in online friendships were also supported, with lonely adolescents scoring higher than nonlonely adolescents. Just as many negative emotion states, feelings of loneliness are aversive and thus endow with more potent motivational force to push an adolescent does something to alleviate these feelings (Sheldon & Gunz, 2009). More precisely, the compensation hypothesis is that the motivational potency of the absence or impairment of personal ties is reminiscent of the potency of a relatively more physiological need (Mahon et al., 2006). While shy adolescents often avoid social situations, lonely adolescents want more contacts. As technology proliferates, social media is, seemingly, about connecting people (Bonetti et al., 2010; McKenna et al., 2002; Wolak et al., 2003). And it can be easy for lonely youth to conflate being “social” and for achieving a greater sense of acceptance (Ang et al., 2018). The specific features of online context, for example, relative accessibility and anonymity, would help to avoid “awkward” eye contact with those around them. The impulse to believe this notion can be even stronger for Internet users with high loneliness. Not surprisingly, there is a tendency for adolescents who seek to fulfil unmet social needs to give greater weight to online context than nonlonely adolescents whose social needs are satisfied.

This study has limitations, three of which are noted here: First, this nature of this study was cross-sectional which precludes making any causal inferences (Creswell, 2009). Longitudinal studies are necessary for identifying whether attitude toward online relationship formation causes better psychological need satisfaction to rigorously define a causal prediction. Second, quantitative survey methodology was employed. Although this methodology is broadly used in social science, the use of self-reported measures poses a threat to the internal validity of the data. Babbie (2007) cautioned that the self-report nature may lead respondents to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself. Future research could consider using a mixed-method approach incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methods to complement survey data and lower the subjectivity limitation of the findings. Third, this study focused only on loneliness and not on aloneness. Future research might investigate if attitude links to psychological need satisfaction differently for those who are more alone in nature.

Despite these limitations, this study provides an extension of, and contribution to, the study of SDT. The extension narrates to the consistent finding of social contexts, in this case, online friendships with psychological need satisfaction. It demonstrates that when exploring psychological need satisfaction, researchers can benefit by investigating the effect of online friendships. Overall, the study corroborates to the idea that online friendships matter in psychological need satisfaction. The study also illuminated a potential moderator in the attitude-psychological need satisfaction link, as shown in the significant moderation finding by loneliness. Thus far, no study has examined the moderating role of loneliness in the relationship between attitude toward online relationship formation and psychological need satisfaction. Knowledge of the moderating role of loneliness differences in the proposed model may contribute to the development of appropriate prevention and intervention programs that are sensitive to differences in loneliness. We are increasingly told that the Internet is making adolescents feel lonelier. And it is not exactly a truth. Put differently, this study suggests that increased loneliness is associated with more positive attitude toward online relationships and increased psychological need satisfaction in online friendships among adolescents. Therefore, it is about harnessing a healthy way to consume it. Although shiny screens promote connections that can be enjoyable, stimulating, and beneficial, it is undeniable that online relationships need to engage with a note of caution in order to yield more positive than negative outcomes.

Conclusion

Relationships are an important element of our everyday lives. This study explored the possibility that adolescents’ involvement in and experiences with online relationships vary with the sense of loneliness. These findings highlight the potential for SDT to shed light on the motivational aspects of adolescents’ new media activities. In the realm of selfhood, online relationships are also important sources of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. While considerably more research is needed to ascertain the precise impact of new media communication on these facets of need satisfaction, this study makes one step closer to understanding the complex interplay between attitude and perceptions of loneliness on psychological need satisfaction in online friendships among adolescents.

Footnotes

Article Notes

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