Online communication and subjective well-being in Chinese college students: The mediating role of shyness and social self-efficacy

The present study attempts to examine the relationship between online communication and subjective well-being from the perspective of psychological need satisfaction, as well as the mediating role of shyness and social self-efficacy among Chinese college students. 574 college students with average age of 20 were asked to complete Psychological Need for Online Communication Scale, Shyness Scale, Social Selfefficacy Scale and Subjective Well-being Scale. SEM evidence supports the stimulation hypothesis, namely, the psychological needs satisfied by online communication can promote a person’s social selfefficacy and experience a higher evaluation of subjective well-being. Meanwhile, the psychological needs satisfied by online communication can also influence individuals’ status of shyness, which will decrease their social self-efficacy and lead to a lower subjective well-being. Furthermore, Chinese female college students obtain less social self-efficacy from the satisfaction of psychological needs through online communication than their male counterparts did, and resulted in less subjective well-being. The results are discussed in terms of psychological needs theory. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.